The concept of well-being is featured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as SDG3 -Good Health and Well-being. However, global discussion on well-being has evolved rather quickly with the experience of the recent pandemic. This important topic has been notably discussed in major international meetings including the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP27) in Egypt and the UN Conference on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) in Canada, strongly emphasizing the discourse of the indigenous peoples and youth.
Reflecting such a recent global trend, this research aims to reconceptualize well-being as envisaged by indigenous peoples, specifically youth, in Asia, Americas, Africa, and Oceania. For this purpose, the research considers four case studies from India, Mexico, Samoa, and South Africa, to understand indigenous people’s conceptualizations of well-being, and strategies for their values integration into the dominant conceptualizations of well-being and sustainability agenda. Three stages of investigation are: 1) EXPLORE – data collection; 2) EXAMINE – data analysis; 3) RECONCEPTUALIZE – data synthesis. The expected outcome of this research is a nature-inclusive well-being framework that integrates indigenous values, contributing to the global discourse on sustainability.