M5S4: Taking Action For Indigenous Health Equity Flashcards
Reconciliation
-ongoing process between indigenous people and non-indigenous people (including the crown of Canada) where mutually respectful framework for living together and producing holistically healthy, sustainable, and strong indigenous nations within a strong Canada is strived for
What must be done to advance truth and reconciliation
-make people belief, and understand
-talk to and about each other with greater respect
-eliminate myths
Recent events on road to reconciliation
2008
Formal apology from federal government was issued for the residential school system
2015
Truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) was released
2016
Indigenous population has began growing, on average is much younger than the overall population. Many efforts toward truth, reconciliation, and revitalization support indigenous communities across Canada
2019
Government launched investigation into deaths and disappearance of more than 2,298 murdered or missing indigenous women and girls between 1908 and 2013
2021
By may, documentation of thousands of unmarked graves of indigenous children at former residential school sites across Canada
Guiding tools for health practitioners and researchers
*guidance documents, tools and framework that give direction including
-truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) calls to action
-United Nations declaration on rights of indigenous people (UNDRIP)
-community-specific protocols
-ownership, control, access and possession (OCAP) principles
-tri-council policy statement (chapter 9)
Truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) report
-between 2008 and 2014, TRC heard stories from thousands of residential school survivors across Canada and released report based on what learnt
-report states indigenous policies of past 100 years were “cultural genocides”
-within report, 94 calls to action provide instruction to guide governments and communities on road to reconciliation which reflect the following categories:
- Child Welfare
• Education
• Health
• Language and Culture
• Justice
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Covenant of Reconciliation
• Settlement Agreements
• Legal System
• National Council for Reconciliation
• Professional Development and Training
• Church Apologies
• Youth Programs
• Museums and Archives
• Information about Missing Children
• Nat’l Centre for TR
• Commemoration
• Media
• Sports
• Business
Beyond 94, areas to TRC call of action that are lacking
If you spend some time on the Beyond 94 website you’ll notice that only 13 of the 94 calls to action for the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission have been achieved. 19 have not yet even been started, and among
these are the adoption legal principles related to Indigenous land title claims, as well as the adoption by the
corporate sector in Canada of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The
reasons behind not achieving or not even starting some of these calls to action are complex, however most
of it has to do with power and privilege and what will happen to power and privilege if some of these are
addressed. But, that’s why it is so important for us to continue to try and address them because structural
change is really what’s needed in order for us to achieve reconciliation.
Origins of the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous people (UNDRIP)
-a human rights instrument that can be used as a guide to set and compare standards for the survival, dignity, and wellbeing of indigenous people
-was assumed by UN general assembly in 2007, despite the fact the efforts to create policies dealing with protection hav been going on for decades
-concerns shared by US, specifically right to self-determination of indigenous people and authority over natural resources existing on indigenous peoples traditional land made process move slowly
Focus of UNDRIP
-focus on rights of indigenous people to live with self-worth, to sustain and fortify their own institutions, cultures, and traditions and to continue working on their self-determined development, in conjunction with their own needs and desires
-significant number of these rights require advanced and improved approaches to global issues, like decentralization, development, and multicultural democracy
-accomplishing total respect for diversity will require countries to take on participatory approaches to indigenous issues, which need efficacious consultations and building and fostering of partnership with indigenous people
Indigenous and community protocol
Interacting with indigenous elders
-protocols like exchange of tobacco, when asking an elder to share traditional knowledge or engaging in some aspect of ceremony (ex. Meeting opening or closing, smudging prayer)
Interacting with indigenous communities
-ways to ask to participate in event or project. Often requires advisory group to review a request ion and/or having the project led by members of the community
The OCAP principles
-principles of ownership, control, access, possession are sanctioned by First Nations information governance committee
-outline stewardship principles that require First Nation ownership of, control of, access to, and possession of its own knowledge including data or any information collected about or with indigenous communities
Tri-council policy statement -2022
-tri-council policy statement - ethical conduct for research involving humans has chapter that specifically outlines basic principles for engaging in research with indigenous communities
-chapter 9 states that when proposing research involving indigenous participants, researchers should advise their research ethics board on how they appropriately engaged, or intended to engage with relevant indigenous communities
