OUR GREAT QUEST: MINO PIMATISI8IN

Mino Pimatisi8in is an Anishinabe word meaning overall, harmonious and balanced state of well-being, and more broadly, the quality of life of the Aboriginal population in its relationship to humans, living beings and the universe. Reflecting the spirit of our ancestors and in constant evolution, Mino Pimatisi8in refers to a specifically Aboriginal way of being, which involves understanding and interacting with the world in respect of our traditional and contemporary values.

Mino Pimatisi8in evokes both the state of mind and the certainty that well-being consists in cultivating our desire to be in harmony with everything else, in time and space. This quest for individual and collective well-being is based on finding a balance among the different dimensions of the Circle of Life and their interactions with one another. This quest for well-being is embodied by a perpetual movement which is rooted in life, but which never allows itself to become calcified.

The main quality of Mino Pimatisi8in is its double anchor - identity and individual-based, on the one hand, collective and community-based, on the other - which always places the individual at the centre of the collective as a learning, acting and reflective member of this collectivity.  This is a decisively holistic approach that translates a balance whose different dimensions and strengths spread out in a combined and integrated way on the individual, family, community, territorial and cosmogonic levels.
 

Sources:
Regroupement des Centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec. 2012. Mino Madjiwin – Innovation et développement en économie sociale autochtone. Wendake. RCAAQ.
Lévesque et al. 2018. Agir pour améliorer la santé des Autochtones dans les villes québécoises et canadiennes : l’exemple de la Clinique Minowé au Centre d’amitié autochtone de Val-d’Or. Montréal. Institut national de recherche scientifique.