Nii Kandis (Knowing Myself): Finding a Sacred Home at Anishnawbe Health Toronto Through Spirit-Based Healing

Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT) is Canada's largest multidisciplinary Indigenous health centre. In 2023, the Executive Director of AHT spearheaded a community-centered research study looking at mental and spiritual health for its community of service users. This project sought to support cultural resurgence efforts in AHT health programming through the synthesis of Indigenous-informed models and understandings of mental health, rooted in the knowledge and experience of care providers at AHT. This project also sought to enhance Indigenous community research capacity by involving Indigenous community stakeholders in each stage of the qualitative research process. This paper details these methods, which follow Indigenous community ethics in research, and include both Indigenous approaches to research as well as qualitative methods. This paper then presents a summary of the study's findings, describing the interdisciplinary mental health services of a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous practitioners at AHT. Three major themes describe the unique features of these services: The Healing Relationship, Indigenous Spaces and Identities as a "Sacred Home", and Healing Through Spirit. The connection between spirituality and Indigenous wellness is discussed by centering Indigenous values and ways of knowing as central to Indigenous healing, survivance, and cultural resurgence.