Jill Williams
Can I tell you something: Sewing, storytelling, and relational research with Indigenous women
Jill’s project explores how Inuit women in Nunatsiavut experience connection, meaning and well-being through sewing and land-based gatherings. Sewing knowledge is passed between generations of women and can provide opportunities for sharing stories, supporting one another and strengthening relationships.
Rather than approaching mental health primarily through deficits or crisis, the research centres strengths that already exist within Inuit communities. It considers how sewing circles may create culturally grounded spaces for peer support and collective wellness.
Approach and methodology
The project is grounded in Indigenous research methodologies and relational accountability. Facilitated sewing circles are planned in community settings and on Nunatsiavut Inuit homelands, in partnership with the Nunatsiavut Government and an Inuk Elder and knowledge holder.
Through sewing, storytelling and shared conversation, the research seeks to document how culturally grounded relational practices contribute to mental well-being, knowledge sharing and community connection.
Expected contribution
The research is expected to add community-informed perspectives on sewing as peer support, land-based approaches to wellness and relational research. This learning could also contribute to discussions of Indigenous mental health and decolonizing research practices in northern and remote communities.
About the researcher
Jill Williams is an Inuk social worker, educator and PhD student in social work at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has worked in rural and northern Labrador communities for more than 20 years in child welfare, mental health and social work education. Her research focuses on Indigenous methodologies, relational accountability, land-based practices and sewing as a culturally grounded form of peer support and knowledge transmission. Through her work, Jill explores how Indigenous ways of knowing can strengthen community well-being and help decolonize social work research and practice.
