International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health | An Interview with the Author—Dr. Nicole Redvers

Name: Dr. Nicole Redvers
Affiliation: Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6G 2M1, Canada
Research interests: Indigenous health; planetary health; education for sustainable healthcare; Indigenous knowledge translation and exchange; Indigenous research methodologies

“Measuring Wellness Through Indigenous Partnerships: A Scoping Review”
by Lynn Mad Plume, Danya Carroll, Melanie Nadeau and Nicole Redvers
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22010043
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/1/43

The following is a short interview with Dr. Nicole Redvers:

1. Congratulations on your published paper. Could you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Nicole Redvers. I am an associate professor, Western research chair, and director of Indigenous Planetary Health at Western University. I am also a member of the Denı́nu Kų́ę́ First Nation, located within the subarctic region of Canada.

2. Was there a specific experience or event in your research career that led you to focus on your current field of research?
Originally, I started as a clinician working in Northern Canada. This is the region where I am from and it is made up of a majority of Indigenous Peoples.
So, the health inequities and the structural barriers to being able to access good healthcare and the dissonance between Western or Euro-Western-centric viewpoints of health and well-being and Indigenous viewpoints are very important. Those who are not working together in partnership with Indigenous Peoples to bridge the gap in the health system often end up dominating health systems and deciding what is best for Indigenous Peoples without their input. Because of that, I decided I needed to start making more of a move to work on some of the structural drivers that are precipitating the problem. You can only do so much in a clinical exam room. It is very difficult when there are not many folks out there who are working on the structural element side, so I decided to make the move to the university and participate more fully in some of the research endeavors around Indigenous health, both on Indigenous Peoples’ health but also on the health of their lands and planet and how that impacts their wellbeing. This creates more of a knowledge translation process for non-Indigenous researchers, policymakers, and clinicians around concepts of Indigenous wellness. My work relates to everything from traditional medicine to planetary health.

3. What difficulties have you encountered in your scientific research? How did you overcome them?
There are certainly a few big challenges. Number one—there is not a lot of awareness from funding agencies around Indigenous health issues, so they tend not to get as many funding opportunities compared to other scientific research streams. Number two—it is more challenging to work in research environments where you sometimes have to spend months creating relationships and making sure that research is co-developed, co-partnered and co-defined all the way through to implementation, as well as journal writing. Many research articles I write are almost always inclusive of the majority of Indigenous authors, community-based authors, and some students too. Comparatively, to apply for a grant, these are not authorship requirements, which increases efforts to secure funding.
It is also a big investment to ensure a successful process and it can take a lot more time than standard research projects. Sometimes, the structures that are upheld within standard research do not allow for that kind of flexibility when working within communities. These are the biggest challenges.

4. What advice do you have for young scholars determined to engage in scientific research?
For Indigenous Peoples or Indigenous young scholars, do not be afraid to utilize Indigenous approaches and Indigenous methodologies, even within the current scientific frameworks that exist. This knowledge is valid and important to highlight. For non-Indigenous scholars wanting to work within Indigenous issues, I think there needs to be a bit more delicacy in ensuring that there is clear positionality. You need to have a clear purpose for why somebody wants to engage with that work and ensure that Indigenous Peoples in these projects are involved right from the start to completion. This kind of work cannot be an independent research career. It always has to be a co-partnership with Indigenous Peoples in their communities at every stage of the research process.

5. We are an open access journal. How do you think open access impacts authors?
For my work, it is incredibly important to be open access. If I am publishing research around Indigenous Peoples, who are one of the most marginalized populations in the world, and that research is behind expensive paywalls that the community or community groups cannot access, that is a major problem. On that ground, I am not doing anything to help them. So, ensuring that Indigenous Peoples’ communities, nations, governments, and policymakers can access the work is incredibly important for me. It is also a responsibility in some sense. If it cannot be mobilized and used by those who need it on the ground, it defeats the purpose.

6. How has your publishing experience been with IJERPH?
My experience has been good. I think in general there has been a decrease in journal processing times, but that has not been my experience with this journal. It has an overall speedy process, considering some of the timelines other journals have for their review process. I wonder how IJERPH manages to stay so fast while other journals seem to be struggling.