In the Globe and Mail earlier this month, in an essay calling for a public inquiry into the tragic events in Saskatchewan, “the intergenerational effects of residential schools, neglect and childhood exposure to family fragmentation and domestic violence” were noted as contributing factors. This was followed by yet another call that Canada, its institutions, leaders and citizens, “confront colonialism” and “what more than a century of racist dehumanization can create over the years.”
As we pause together to mark Truth and Reconciliation Day, let’s make no mistake: Canada’s refusal to decolonize, the inaction of leaders and governments, continued denials and erasures of the truth, and failures to do the work of reconciliation before making speeches about it – all of these lead to the same familiar and unacceptable results. Intergenerational trauma, fractured families, the ongoing effects of anti-Indigenous racism and systemic barriers to Indigenous wellbeing all continue to be felt this year, as in previous years, and remain complex problems that will not address themselves.
While much hope and attention were paid to the Papal visit and words of apology Pope Francis offered for the Catholic Church’s leading role in the creation and maintenance of residential schools as sites of genocide and trauma, one of the telling results of this public relations effort was to highlight the still growing need for resources to support survivors of Canada’s colonial oppression and their families. And it’s not just crisis lines where Canada’s governments and health system leaders need to get serious about taking action.
For the Alliance and our members -- comprehensive primary health care organizations, including Indigenous-led centres and teams or Indigenous Primary Health Care Organizations across this province – the focus of Truth and Reconciliation Day is firmly on the actions needed to support decolonization of health systems, to create safer spaces and services for Indigenous people and communities, and the ways we can change our collective story that create the conditions for reconciliation.
Supporting the conditions for health and wellbeing for all Indigenous people and communities requires deeper understanding and better practices by everyone who works in the health and social systems of Ontario. It’s why we want to highlight the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council’s (IPHCC) ongoing efforts to increase cultural competency and address anti-Indigenous racism in health care and social services.
The Anishinaabe Mino’Ayaawin – People in Good Health is IPHCC’s approach to Indigenous Cultural Safety. The first course, Foundations of ICS, is for individuals working in the health care system to learn the importance of adopting culturally safe and appropriate practices when serving Indigenous clients and patients. The IPHCC is also working with health organizations on ongoing curriculum development and focused trainings, customized sessions, toolkits, and local organizational change initiatives. Alliance members have collectively supported the IPHCC’s programs and calls to action. It’s time for people in the wider health and social systems and government to connect the dots here between action on Indigenous cultural safety and changing the story on intergenerational trauma and racism.
For the Alliance and its members, Truth and Reconciliation is an opportunity to highlight, champion and call for more action to place Indigenous health into Indigenous hands. It’s also a chance to look inside of our organizations, at what we can be doing to contribute to safer spaces, services and Indigenous self-determination and governance in health care. That means more health care services governed, planned and delivered by Indigenous health leaders and organizations. It means meaningful opportunities and places at tables to contribute to wider system reform for health equity. It means re-shaping day to day services and practices. It means ensuring Indigenous ways of knowing and being are at the heart of Indigenous health and wellbeing systems – through finding meaningful ways to work together towards a truly Two-Eyed Seeing approach to health care in Ontario. This is work we must all engage in, together, to move towards truth and reconciliation.
Another key component of addressing colonialism’s impacts on Indigenous health is access to traditional healers. As the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre (SOAHAC) notes on its website, “access to traditional healing services is an essential part of wholistic health care and a vital component of healing the ongoing effects of colonization.” Yet recognition and resourcing of traditional healers in Ontario’s health system continues to lag, and access to healers remains precarious or impossible for so many Indigenous people who could benefit from it. As Alliance members gathered in June at our AGM, we passed a resolution calling on the federal and provincial governments to fully recognize and resource traditional healers as an important health service provider in Indigenous-led primary health care delivery. We echo that call here again, as an action that is a concrete step towards addressing colonialism’s violent legacy and ongoing impacts on Indigenous people and communities.
Addressing colonialism and its violent impacts on Indigenous people, families and communities is work that must be generational, visionary, and approach complex systemic problems with creative, Indigenous- led solutions that are well resourced and supported across Canada’s governments and systems. That’s how we can move forward together.