Sandra Juutilainen
Dr. Juutilainen is Haudenosaunee (Oneida Nation of the Thames, Turtle Clan), and Finnish Canadian. She is an assistant professor, Indigenous health and nutrition, in the School of Nutrition at Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Juutilainen also holds an adjunct assistant professor appointment in the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Prior to embarking on graduate work, she practiced as a registered dietitian (RD) in First Nations communities throughout Ontario and Yukon Territory. She was a co-chair of the Aboriginal Nutrition Network, a working group of Dietitians of Canada, and sat on many Health Canada working groups throughout her career as an RD. In addition, she had the opportunity to focus on Indigenous health and wellness work at the provincial and federal levels in Canada. Her graduate work was completed in Finland at the University of Oulu with support from Finnish and Sámi colleagues.
Research interests:
Indigenous health and wellness; Comparative critical dietetics; Food security; Food
sovereignty; Qualitative and mixed-methods research; Community-driven research
informed by Indigenous epistemologies.
Research projects:
Truth Telling: Gardens, farming and food experiences at the Mohawk Institute
Indian Residential School
Year: 2018-22
Role: Principal Investigator; Research team members from Six Nations of the Grand
River, McMaster University and University of Waterloo
Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development
Grant competition 430-2018-0341
Towards decolonizing Canadian dietetic practice
Year: 2020-22
Role: Co-PI with Hanning R (University of Waterloo); Research team members from Six Nations of the Grand River, Mount Saint Vincent University, University of Waterloo and Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Funded by: Canadian Dietetic Research Foundation (CFDR); CFDR for Dietetic
Research Grants competition.
First Nations, Inuit and Métis Food sovereignty in Canada
Year: 2021-22
Role: Principal Investigator
Funded by: Learning and Teaching Grant, Toronto Metropolitan University
Book Chapters:
- Morrow T, Freeman B & Juutilainen S.A (forthcoming, spring 2025). ęhǫwadihsadǫ ne:ˀhniˀ gadigyenǫ:gyeˀs ganahaǫgwęˀ ęyagǫnhehgǫhǫ:k / They buried them, but they the seeds floated around what will sustain them. In Behind the Bricks: The Lives and Times of the Mohawk Institute, the Model for the Canadian Residential School System. Jennifer Petit and Thomas Peace (eds). University of Calgary Press. Canada.
- Juutilainen S.A & Heikkilä L (2016). Moving forward with Sámi research ethics: how the dialogical process to policy development in Canada supports the course of action for the Nordic countries. In Ethics in Indigenous Research, Past Experiences - Future Challenges. Drugge, Anna-Lill (ed). Vaartoe-Centre for Sami Research, Umeå University. Sweden.
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles:
- Juutilainen S.A., Jeffrey M & Stewart S (9 June 2020). Methodology Matters: Designing a Pilot Study Guided by Indigenous Epistemologies. Human Biology, 91(3), pp 141-151, https://doi.org/10.32920/25338187.v1
- Huuki T & Juutilainen S (2016) Mapping Historical, Material and Affective Entanglements in a Sámi Woman’s Discriminatory Experiences in and beyond Finnish Boarding School. Education in the North, 23 (2), pp.3-23.
- Juutilainen, S.A., Miller R, Heikkilä L, & Rautio A (2014). Structural Racism and Indigenous Health: What Indigenous Perspectives of Residential School and Boarding School Tell Us? A Case Study of Canada and Finland. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 5(3). DOI:10.18584/iipj.2014.5.3.3
- Dean’s Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award. Faculty of Community
Services, Toronto Metropolitan University. April 2024.