For Art's Sake, For Health's Sake: Centering Creativity in Indigenous Health Research Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Art has become the heart of the Co-Learning Summits funded by the Wabanaki-Labrador Indigenous Health Research Network, the Atlantic regional network within the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research program. In this commentary, the story of how art has come to anchor the summits held in 2019, 2024 and 2025 is shared. Collaboratively planned, these summits convene Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, health practitioners, researchers, and students to build relationships and share knowledge in support of Indigenous health and wellness transformation. These summits are spaces where Indigenous communities, collectives, and organizations contribute to the direction of the Network's work rather than simply being consulted. Tracing the evolution of the summits over six years, this commentary describes the ways that artmaking moved from a feature of the inaugural summit to becoming an organizing principle of those that followed. Across the summits, creative practices – including drumming, song, poetry, found poetry, clay work, beading, graphic recording, podcasting, and the wearing of regalia – have fostered welcoming, relational spaces that honor multiple ways of knowing. Crucially, this approach is distinct from arts-based research methodologies: at the summits, art is not a tool for gathering data or producing outputs. Rather, it is present because it belongs there, fostering connection, healing, focus, and cultural continuity for art's sake, for health's sake, and for relation's sake.  In this commentary, it is argued that centering art challenges Western academic tendencies to separate knowledge sharing from knowledge creation, culture from scholarship, and wellbeing from productivity. In doing so, this story is offered as an invitation to consider what becomes possible when art is recognized as foundational to how communities gather, learn, and advance health together.