To mark this Truth and Reconciliation Day, we recognize truths that remain unheard, and actions that still need to be taken. We’re also celebrating the work currently underway to advance Indigenous health, while calling for increased access to culturally appropriate and safe care to address ongoing health inequities in Indigenous communities all across these lands.
Hard truth: Many people have yet to read, let alone take action on the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
September 30 is about more than wearing an orange t-shirt. This day is meant to remind each of us what needs to be done, commit to doing it, and hold our political leaders, and ourselves, accountable. If you’re wondering about areas where progress is being made, want to get inspired, or learn more about how you can contribute, here’s one website you can visit. It includes an entry (and songs) posted in recent days on the state of reconciliation in the arts, from the perspective of Indigenous artists from across Turtle Island. If you want to know more about what resistance to colonialism looks like, what imagining new futures looks like, this is a good place to start.
Hard truth: Indigenous people continue to experience health inequities due to systemic oppression and colonial policies and practices in health care.
To address these health inequities, we need to make culturally safe care widely available and accessible. Ontario and Canada need to put Indigenous health planning, development, governance and delivery into Indigenous hands, across our governments and our health systems. There needs to be wider adoption of Indigenous Cultural Safety Training in health and social services.
There also needs to be more support for Indigenous Traditional Healing and culturally appropriate care combined with best practices from Western medicine. To achieve better health outcomes for Indigenous peoples, we must help to advance the Indigenous health in Indigenous hands movement, that is transforming what health care looks like for Indigenous people. The recent agreement between York University and the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council earlier this month is a type of collaborations that will help advance this work and a cause for celebration.
Hard truth: Many Indigenous communities across Canada continue to experience lack of clean drinking water.
Bill C-61, First Nations Clean Water Act was introduced in the House of Commons to support and resource the development of clean drinking water in Indigenous communities. It is in committee and still needs to get to a Third Reading in the Legislature. It needs to make it through Canada’s Senate. We can take action, today, to let our Members of Parliament know where we stand, that this bill must be strong enough to ensure clean drinking water in ALL communities. We can use our political voice and power to recognize the truth (and shame) that Canada still has communities without clean water. This is where truth and reconciliation, the past, the present and the future, the personal and the political, meet. Here’s Bill C-61. Here some recent debate over how to make the proposed law stronger, to ensure it works. Here’s how to find/reach your MP.
It's great that Canada now dedicates a day to learning and sharing hard truths, to remembering the actions we need to be taking, to holding ourselves accountable to our own commitments and the commitments of our leaders. But let’s strongly consider the other 364 days of the year. After we take off our Orange t-shirts, let’s make sure we’re still standing up for the health and wellbeing of Indigenous children and the generations to come. Let’s call out colonialism that lingers in our policies and systems. Let’s make sure that this Truth and Reconciliation Day has meaning and substance – in our lives and in our politics, every day of the year.