scholarly journals Miýo-pimātisiwin Developing Indigenous Cultural Responsiveness Theory (ICRT): Improving Indigenous Health and Well-Being

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
JoLee Sasakamoose ◽  
Terrina Bellegarde ◽  
Wilson Sutherland ◽  
Shauneen Pete ◽  
Kim McKay-McNabb
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Responsiveness ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
The Status

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada calls upon those who can effect change within Canadian systems to recognize the value of Indigenous healing practices and to collaborate with Indigenous healers, Elders, and knowledge keepers where requested by Indigenous Peoples. This article presents the Indigenous Cultural Responsiveness Theory (ICRT) as a decolonized pathway designed to guide research that continuously improves the health, education, governance, and policies of Indigenous Peoples in Saskatchewan. Decolonizing practices include privileging and engaging in Indigenous philosophies, beliefs, practices, and values that counter colonialism and restore well-being. The ICRT supports the development of collaborative relationships between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous allies who seek to improve the status of First Nations health and wellness.

scholarly journals Jordan’s Principle: Reconciliation and the First Nations Child

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Colleen Sheppard
Keyword(s):  
Child Welfare ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Child Welfare Services ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Nations Child ◽  
The Individual

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was mandated to “document the individual and collective harms” of residential schools and to “guide and inspire a process of truth and healing, leading toward reconciliation.”  The stories of survivors revealed the intergenerational and egregious harms of taking children from their families and communities. In seeking to redress the legacy of the residential schools era, the TRC Calls to Action include greater recognition of self-governance of Indigenous Peoples, as well as numerous recommendations for equitable funding of health, educational, and child welfare services.

scholarly journals Indigenous Mental Health: Imagining a Future Where Action Follows Obligations and Promises

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance MacIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Status ◽  
State Obligations ◽  
Indigenous Mental Health ◽  
Inuit Peoples ◽  
Mental Well Being

This article considers what it would mean if Canada fulfilled select existing commitments and obligations concerning the mental health needs of Indigenous peoples, as identified through current programs and recent jurisprudence: that is, where would we be if Canada carried through on existing commitments? After identifying the role of law in perpetuating poor mental well-being, it assesses programs for First Nations and Inuit peoples and determines they are unlikely to be effective without operational changes and responsive funding. The article then turns to the situation of Metis and non-status First Nations and the implications of Daniels v. Canada for changing the status quo – both by requiring appropriate mental health supports, and by dismantling the racist legal logic that has long undermined the mental well-being of non-status First Nations and Metis persons, by positioning them as not counting as true Indigenous peoples. The article concludes that merely fulfilling current state obligations could bring considerable short-term gains, and some long-term gains, for the mental well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

scholarly journals COMPLETING THE CIRCLE: TOWARDS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF IND-EQUITY- A CULTURALLY RELEVANT HEALTH EQUITY MODEL BY/FOR INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Bernice Downey
Keyword(s):  
Health Equity ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Structural Reform ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Equity Model

Health equity is defined in ways that espouse values of social justice and benevolence and is held up as an ideal state achievable by all. However, there remains a troubling gap in health outcomes between Indigenous Peoples and other Canadians. Public health stakeholders aspire to ‘close the gap’ and ‘level the gradient’ to reduce inequities though the implementation of various health equity focused strategies. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada echoes this objective and calls for self-determining structural reform to address health inequity for Indigenous Peoples. This paper proposes an IND-equity model as a reconciliation inspired response that upholds Indigenous self-determination and is informed by diverse Indigenous ways of knowing.  When adopting this model, the goal is to complete the circle and foster wholistic balance. Further development and implementation of an IND-equity model requires advocacy by all health practitioners. Nurses hold potential to lead and engage in structural reform through an Indigenous health ally role.

scholarly journals Creating New Stories: The Role of Evaluation in Truth and Reconciliation

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Bremner
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Critical Issues ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Individual

This paper describes the origins of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, with the focus on how evaluators and their professional associations can contribute to truth and reconciliation. At the professional association level, the actions that the Canadian Evaluation Society has taken in committing itself to incorporating truth and reconciliation into its values, principles, and practices are highlighted. At the individual level, evaluators are challenged to refl ect on their practice. As storytellers, evaluators have been complicit in telling stories that, while highlighting the damaging legacy of residential schools, have had little influence on changing the status quo for Indigenous peoples and communities. The need to reconsider who should be telling the stories and what stories should be told are critical issues upon which evaluators must refl ect. The way forward also needs to include a move toward a more holistic view, incorporating the interaction between human and natural systems, thus better refl ecting an Indigenous, rather than a Western, worldview. The imperative for evaluators, both in Canada and globally, to see Indigenous peoples “as creators of their own destinies and experts in their own realities” is essential if evaluation is to

scholarly journals Envisioning Indigenous Community Courts to Realize Justice in Canada for First Nations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelique EagleWoman
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Indigenous Law ◽  
United Nations Declaration ◽  
Community Courts

Recognition continues to grow both within Canada, as well as the wider worldwide community, of the unique issues facing Indigenous people within Canada’s justice system. We see this in the recent wholesale adoption by the Canadian Government of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action. This article examines the potential development of a system of Indigenous community courts as a way to end colonial suppression of Indigenous self-governance. The article suggests as a model for these courts the tribal courts in the United States, as a means by which Indigenous peoples can re-instate Indigenous law and legal principles.

scholarly journals Structural Genocide and Institutionalized Racism in Canada: The Department of Indian Affairs and Framing of Indigenous Peoples

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-37
Author(s):  
Laura Mudde
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Institutionalized Racism ◽  
Canadian Government ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
Indian Affairs

This review problematizes the health and socio-economic disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, which I argue is due to the role of the Canadian government. Specifically, I analyse the continuous process of Indigenous administrative subjugation under Canadian rule to uncover the intrinsic racial predilections of Canadian government policy toward First Nations peoples in Canada’s Prairie West provinces through the application of diagnostic frame analysis as a multidisciplinary research method to analyse how people understand situations and activities. My research results reveal the racialized marginalization of First Nation peoples through the administrative regimes in Canada as a continuous contemporary process established in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. In exposing the structural discrimination of First Nations peoples, my research introduces the reader to the concept of political master narratives, or ‘imaginaries’. These imaginaries foster the health and socio-economic disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups in Canadian society. The critical analysis of these historically structural government instituted imaginaries and the indirect, exponentially higher chances of tuberculosis and related diseases and deaths among Indigenous peoples’ challenge conclusions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on cultural genocide. This study proposes structural genocide as a more accurate and inclusive term for the continuous institutional marginalization of not only Indigenous peoples as seen in this case study of the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) but for all Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Missiological implications for Taylor Seminary arising from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-413
Author(s):  
Allan Effa
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Cooperative Effort ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Cultural Genocide ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Set Up

In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded a six-year process of listening to the stories of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. More than 6000 witnesses came forth to share their personal experiences in listening sessions set up all across the country. These stories primarily revolved around their experience of abuse and cultural genocide through more than 100 years of Residential Schools, which were operated in a cooperative effort between churches and the government of Canada. The Commission’s Final Report includes 94 calls to action with paragraph #60 directed specifically to seminaries. This paper is a case study of how Taylor Seminary, in Edmonton, is seeking to engage with this directive. It explores the changes made in the curriculum, particularly in the teaching of missiology, and highlights some of the ways the seminary community is learning about aboriginal spirituality and the history and legacy of the missionary methods that have created conflict and pain in Canadian society.

scholarly journals Our Shared Future: Windows into Canada’s Reconciliation Journey — A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 178-182
Author(s):  
Peter D Shipley
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Residential Schools ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Road Map ◽  
To Come ◽  
New Recruits

The challenges and complexity of the reconciliation process are still not well understood by a large number of non-Indigenous people in Canada. As a nation, we are attempting to grasp the intricacy of how to unravel and atone for the damage that has been done in establishing and managing the more than 130 residential schools in Canada. This not only impacted more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children but destroyed generations of families that are still and will continue to be impacted for years to come. The official apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper on June 11, 2008, to all Indigenous people in Canada for the atrocities of the Indian Residential Schools was the start of a very long and painful continuous journey. The 94 calls to action released in 2015 by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission provide a road map to a complex recovery process for Indigenous people across the country. In January 2018, Health Canada held a national panel discussion with Indigenous leaders and experts on the question “Reconciliation—What Does it Mean?” One of the main themes of reconciliation revolves around education, and, in order to stay focused, we must continue to educate Canadians, including police leaders and new recruits, as we move through the meandering path of econciliation. The book Our Shared Future provides an outstanding in-depth look through the windows into a number of individual perspectives on the reconciliation journey.

A retrospective on reconciliation by design

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alika T. Lafontaine ◽  
Christopher J. Lafontaine
Keyword(s):  
First Nations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Health ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Stakeholder Alignment ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Of Canada ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Thinking Tools

It is well-established that Indigenous Peoples continue to experience a lower level of health than non-Indigenous Peoples in Canada. For many health leaders, finding practical strategies to close the gap in health disparities remains elusive. In this retrospective study, we will illustrate our own experience of transformational change using design and systems thinking tools toward a primary outcome of multi-stakeholder alignment. Using this approach enabled three Indigenous Provincial/Territorial Organizations (IPTOs) representing more than 150 First Nations communities from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario to establish the largest community-led, collaborative approach to health transformation in Canada at the time. These IPTOs have gone on to pursue some of the most ambitious health transformation initiatives in Canada and in September 2018, were granted $68 million in funding support by the Government of Canada. If health leaders are looking at an alternative approach to closing the gap in Indigenous health, alignment thinking has shown promising results.

scholarly journals The Implementation of the 2012 Mental Health Strategy for Canada Through the Lens of FASD

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara Anderson ◽  
Mansfield Mela ◽  
Michelle Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Individual Treatment ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Health Strategy ◽  
Treatment Plans

It is the current authors’ perspective that the successful implementation of Changing Directions, Changing Lives, which seeks to improve mental health and well-being in Canada, cannot be realized effectively without considering FASD. Given that 94% of individuals with FASD also have mental disorders, practitioners in the mental health system are encountering these individuals every day. Most mental health professionals have not been trained to identify or diagnose FASD, and therefore it goes largely “unseen,” and individual treatment plans lack efficacy. Implementation of FASD-informed recommendations, such as those of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015), can provide a more effective approach to mental health services and improve mental health outcomes.

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