Author Archives: mackenzie moyer

Post #20: Cultural safety

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfrIW9EUi4g

In this video Australian healthcare professionals outline the rationale behind and benefits of maintaining “cultural safety” when serving Indigenous peoples in a healthcare setting.

Cultural safety is a concept which first emerged out of New Zealand and has since become an important part of the literature in relation to Indigenous health and healthcare. Current research is focused on the efficacy of training non-Indigenous healthcare professionals in cultural safety. Results are currently inconclusive, but scholars seem unanimous in pursuing further research as cultural safety shows promise of being an effective tool to modifying communication and interactions between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people.

To me, it appears the concept is useful beyond both healthcare settings (e.g., Indigenous students in the Canadian education system) and for wider, inter-cultural relations (e.g., interactions between majority and minority people).

A deeper explanation/definition of cultural safety:

“Cultural safety is a concept that emerged in the late 1980s as a framework for the delivery of more appropriate health services for the Maori people in New Zealand. More recently it has become recognised that the concept is useful in all health care settings – not just those involving Indigenous peoples, eg. Maori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. A commonly used definition of cultural safety is that of Williams (1999) who defined cultural safety as:

an environment that is spiritually, socially and emotionally safe, as well as physically safe for people; where there is no assault challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need. It is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared knowledge and experience of learning together (p.213).

Culturally safe practices include actions which recognize and respect the cultural identities of others, and safely meet their needs, expectations and rights. Alternatively, culturally unsafe practices are those that “diminish, demean or disempower the cultural identity and well-being of an individual” (Nursing Council of New Zealand 2002, p. 9).” (http://www.intstudentsup.org/diversity/cultural_safety/)

Post #19: Improving the outcomes of Indigenous students in Australia’s education systems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaqmGBhgm6k&t=354s

In this video Nakata identifies work being done in Australia’s education systems to increase Indigenous student enrollment and achievement through K-12 to tertiary and beyond. Nakata identifies specific programs and initiatives that have been successful, and how these have additionally been able to shift the statistical academic profile of Indigenous students from majority BA students to STEM focused fields.

In terms of the Canadian Indigenous educational context, we may be able to glean some new tactics to improving the situation here. Dr. Nakata also presents frameworks that may prove useful in researching and framing the context in Canada.

When researching healthcare in relation to Indigeneity, I came across the concept of “cultural interface,” a concept elaborated by Dr. Martin Nakata. Although I have proven unable to integrate his work into my research, I have a better appreciation for the complexities of Indigenous Knowledge Systems as a result of the work I have read by Nakata.

“Professor Nakata is a Torres Strait Islander who graduated with a Bachelor of Education with honours from James Cook University where he subsequently was awarded his PhD in 1998. He is Chair of Australian Indigenous Education,and Director of Nura Gili at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is also a Board member of the Collections Councils of Australia Ltd. He has presented eighteen plenary and keynote addresses at national as well as international conferences in ten countries, and published over seventy articles on Indigenous Australians and education in various academic journals and books in Australia and abroad. He is a former member of the editorial board of The Australian Educational Researcher and current member of the editorial board of the Journal of Indigenous policy and Balayi” (http://www.maramatanga.co.nz/person/professor-martin-nakata)

Post #18: Tobacco Offering Protocol

It’s important to go about research properly, and something that has stood out for me in ETEC 521 is that cultural considerations should figure predominantly in research.

While researching for my final project I came across the cultural item of “tobacco in cloth.” In that paper it was listed in part of the study design, and I’d never heard of it. Intrigued, I investigated and found this: https://carleton.ca/indigenous/resources/tobacco-offering-protocol/

And also this: https://revivedrev.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/hello-world/

The first gives a good framework to work from, both offer step-by-step procedures that are identical, and the WordPress blog has this advice:

“This is a guideline for offering tobacco to Indigenous folks developed with Anishinaabeg near the Forks of the Red and the Assiniboine Rivers. It would be best to consult with local people to find out if the particulars are different. But this is a good starting point.”

For ourselves as masters students, and for any longer term scholars among us, loose tobacco wrapped in red cloth is a useful point of cultural reference to have in one’s tool belt.

Post #17: Delivering on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Calls to Action

The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), namely the final report back in 2015, is an important part of contemporary Canadian history, and hints at a more positive future in terms of mainstream and indigenous relations.

But what exactly is the government of Canada to right historical wrongs and continuing challenges illuminated by the TRC? Is it doing enough?

The answers can be found here: https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1524494530110/1524494579700

It’s important to keep our government accountable to its obligations. From a quick glance you can see much is being done–and much has yet to be started. This is a valuable resource for K-12 students, as it shows our federal democracy at work, and myriad Indigenous-focused initiatives going on across Canada. It can also, of course, be linked to education about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the importance of its work and impact. Teachers may find it useful to keep up to speed on the topic as well.

Reference:

Government of Canada. (2018). Delivering on Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action. Retrieved from https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1524494530110/1524494579700

Post #16: The Red Road Approach

The Red Road Approach is a traditional Ojibwe approach to health and wellness that I came across while researching for my paper. I’ve included an article below that identifies the origins of this approach and background on its originator, Manidoogekek.

Learning about this traditional indigenous approach to healing is valuable, I think, for not only those who face mental illnesses such as depression and substance abuse, but also healthcare students, researchers, and practitioners.

To summarize what this approach entails, here’s an excerpt from the paper I originally heard of The Red Road Approach:

“The Red Road approach by Gene Thin Elk uses the medicine wheel as a holistic, traditional therapeutic method of healing from abuses, alcholism, historical grief and trauma…[It also] utilizes the Healing Circle process…to evoke emotional discharge which allows participants to let go of trauma.” (Hill, p. 35-36)

References:

Hill, L.P. (2008) Understanding indigenous Canadian traditional health and healing. (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2049&context=etd

The Red Road Project. (2016) About us. Retrieved from www.redroadproject.ca/profile

Post 15: Indigenous approaches to healing

Indigenous approaches to healing have survived and evolved into the present day as alternative practices and knowledge systems. Once dismissed, these “traditional” (I use the word self-consciously, because “traditional” here does not mean some fossilized structure from the past, but a dynamic continuation to the present) systems and practices are now being reconsidered. I’ve collected a few articles on the topic.

This is an expansive and rather complex area connected to my research. I may be unable to delve too deeply into it, though medicine system comparison research (e.g., traditional First Nations, Chinese, Indian, African, modern biomedical) may present an interesting topic for another student of this or other classes (i.e., tertiary students would benefit from this).

Articles:

“Traditional indigenous approaches to healing and the modern welfare of traditional knowledge, spirituality and lands: A critical reflection on practices and policies taken from the Canadian Indigenous example:” https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=iipj

In this article, the authors researched the addiction rehabilitation practices of an indigenous community centre. What they found is that Indigenous and “western therapy” approaches are interwoven. This has interesting implications for the future integration of disparate knowledge systems: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/117057/ajcp9373.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Post 14: Cultural Continuity as a hedge against suicide in Canada’s first nations.

http://web.uvic.ca/~lalonde/manuscripts/1998TransCultural.pdf

In this article the authors identify how culture can help prevent the heartbreaking phenomena of First Nations youth suicide. From the abstract “Communities that have taken active steps to preserve and rehabilitate their own cultures are shown to be those in which youth suicide rates are dramatically lower.”

In terms of the readings we’ve done so far in this class, I think this directly pertains to the concern that focusing too much on cultural responsiveness may be somehow detrimental to Indigenous youth in terms of academic performance. Here we have an argument that, to the contrary, culture is an imperative factor for Indigenous youth to thrive in the most primal of ways: life and death.

This topic may be applicable to secondary and tertiary education. With the former, the educator would need to distill and present the findings of this article and others to explain some of the wider implications.

Additional resource:

Article about culture being used as treatment to mental health: http://learningcircle.ubc.ca/files/2014/05/Redressing-First-Nations-historical-trauma-Theorizing-mechanisms-for-indigenous-culture-as-mental-health-treatment.pdf

Article about healing through “interdependence” (culture, family, community): https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ555251.pdf

Post 13: “First Nations Health Authority seeks qualified nurses!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ4Z6OeET-I

Inspiring and positive video advertising The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). I explained in a past post a little bit about this organization, but this particular video gives more of a human feel to the topic, one which tells stories from the front lines of nursing in remote First Nations communities in British Columbia.

This may be a better introduction to the FNHA than their website, as the stories told touch upon many of the themes explored in this course. It may be useful in terms of nursing curriculum to generate interest in these important topics in the healthcare field.

Post 12: Medical experiments on residential school children

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2672669073/

In this podcast, Ian Mosby (a food and nutrition historian) describes some of the experiments conducted upon Indigenous children in the residential school system. These are things which were exposed also by CBC rather than the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It’s also disturbing and shameful that these were experiments that happened after the conclusion of the Nuremberg war crimes trails, where Nazi doctors convicted of these crimes against humanity were imprisoned.

Some of these experiments led to the deaths of Indigenous children.

From the podcast: “I think if we really want to understand the mindset behind the residential school system, and also Canada’s…’Indian Policies.’ It was a dehumanization of Indigenous people. And they viewed indigenous people as somehow less than the rest of the Canadian population. Otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to watch students be so malnourished across the country—it wasn’t just the experimental schools where they were malnourished, it was across the country. And yet they stood idly by while generations of students had their health damaged by malnutrition.”

This would be too heavy a topic for primary students, but if done correctly could be integrated into secondary school curricula, and of course tertiary education.

Other resources:

Academic article from the podcast interviewee: https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/viewFile/40239/36424

CBC article on the topic: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/residential-school-nutrition-experiments-explained-to-kenora-survivors-1.3171557

Ear experiments done on residential school children: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/ear-experiments-done-on-kids-at-kenora-residential-school-1.1343992

“’We do know that there were research initiatives that were conducted with regard to medicines that were used ultimately to treat the Canadian population. Some of those medicines were tested in aboriginal communities and residential schools before they were utilized publicly.’

Sinclair said some of those medicines developed were then withheld from the same aboriginal children they were originally tested on.” (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/aboriginal-children-used-in-medical-tests-commissioner-says-1.1318150)

Post 11: Dr. Carrie Bourassa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2YFQ6tACZE

In this video, Dr. Bourassa (bio below) explains how she approaches healthcare research with Indigenous communities. Her approach to this research is “formative” and “asset” based, rather than “deficit.” Dr. Bourassa also explores concepts such as cultural safety and self-determination.

These are all important concepts to consider in conceptualizing Indigenous healthcare research and practice. Still in the beginning stages, the approach explained by Dr. Bourassa promises to bridge the gap between Indigenous peoples and healthcare systems in Canada.

Useful for higher education. I can’t see an application below tertiary.

I’ll be using this video to better frame my approach to my paper.

Dr. Bourassa’s bio (from YouTube video):

“Chair in Indigenous & Northern Health and Senior Scientist at Health Sciences North Research Institute, and the Scientific Director of the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Carrie spoke to over 100 attendees about the state of Indigenous and northern health in Canada and the inequalities that Indigenous populations continue to face. Carrie shared her personal story and provided insight into how HSN and HSNRI can create a safe culture for our Indigenous patients.”

Dr. Bourassa is part of these two organizations/initiatives:

http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/50716.html