Dr. Robert Henry

Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Justice and Wellbeing

Associate Professor, Department of Indigenous Studies, University of Saskatchewan

Lead of National Coordinating Centre for Network Environments of Indigenous Health Research Networks 

Nominated Principal Investigator – Indigenous Engagement Platform for Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Misuse (CRISM)

Robert Henry is Métis and a citizen of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, from Prince Albert, SK, and holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Justice and Wellbeing. His research focuses primarily on the experiences of Indigenous Peoples engaged in street lifestyles, where he uses a survivance lens to challenge pathologized understandings of their experiences. Much of his research consists of using an Indigenous research framework focused on relational accountability through arts-based research methods. Working with Indigenous ex-gang members and collecting life narratives using visual research methods, he examines how their notions of identity are impacted with their involvement within and across multiple social systems. Through this work he has published two manuscripts with Indigenous gang and ex-gang members – Brighter Days Ahead (2013) and Indigenous Women and Street Gangs: Survivance Narratives (2021), and co-edited four other books on Indigenous health, settler colonialism, and Indigenous sociology. He has published in the areas of Indigenous methodologies, arts-based research, Indigenous criminology, prison cultures, and Métis data sovereignty.

www.indigitalstorytelling.ca

Related Publications:
Amber, Bev, Chantal, Jazmyne, Faith, Jorgina, and Henry, R. (2021) Indigenous women and street gangs: survivance narratives (Edmonton: University Alberta Press).

Henry, R., Gabel, C., Tait, C., Kowalski, K., & Nychuk, A. (2026). Promoting self-determined Indigenous data governance in Canada: the Métis Health Research and Data Governance Principles. Health Promotion International, 41(1), daaf229.