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Article History

Received: 20 November 2023

Accepted: 9 April 2024

First Online: 17 May 2024

Declarations

:

: Ethics approval granting permission to conduct this research in Innu territory was received from the Innu Nation. The Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation Band Council also provided a letter of support for this study. The research team includes an Innu co-primary investigator and two other Innu co-investigators. This team has collaborated to create an Indigenous Research Agreement that described how the research would be conducted in keeping with the First Nations Information Governance Centre’s principles of Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession (OCAP). All aspects of this study were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. All study participants provided informed consent. Innu community members made the decisions throughout every stage of this research. Ethical approval was also received from the Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health Authority and the Health Research Ethics Board (HREB) in Newfoundland and Labrador.

: Innu Nation.Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health Authority.Newfoundland and Labrador Health Research Ethics Authority (file number 20192163).Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation Band Council (letter of support).

: Memorial University institutional consent forms include informed consent for publication. The corresponding author has retained these for review upon request. A consent amendment request was approved by the Health Research Ethics Board (HREB) for the Innu Elders, who provided informed verbal consent with verbal translation into Innu-aimun. Verbal consent was deemed to be the most reliable and culturally safer way to ensure informed consent during the research process. The corresponding author has retained the verbal consent script for review upon request.

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This research collaboration is the result of a community partnership between the Innu Nation and Memorial University’s Faculty of Medicine, with support from the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation (SIFN) Band Council, Memorial University’s Labrador Institute, Labrador-Grenfell Regional Health Authority, and the Department of Health and Community Services, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. An Innu advisory committee was formed at the beginning of the project to guide all stages of the work.