Research Interest: Topic – How can we remove barriers to health care education for Indigenous students?
Indigenous Knowledge to Close Gaps in Indigenous Health | Marcia Anderson-DeCoteau | TEDxUManitoba
This has been an interest of mine for many years now. I chose this video, not because it inspired me to explore this topic further (I’ve been pondering this question for years), but because she tells the story much better than I ever could on why it is so important to encourage more Indigenous students into health care fields, particularly those living on reserve.
The stories she tells of Indigenous people’s encounters with the health care system, and stories I’ve heard personally from others, are the stories that have inspired me to look further into what we can do about the negative encounters of Indigenous people with the health care system. I’ve heard personally from people that have experienced directly the type of racism she speaks of in hospitals – women denied analgesics because “they’re probably addicted” anyway, I heard a story from a mother who was in active labour and was told to ‘stop drinking for your baby” (this woman does not drink, and is a lawyer – they still encouraged her to stop drinking, but were less demanding about it). I’ve heard from my mother, who was a social worker with Victims Services in Dawson Creek, stories about clients she worked with having horrific experiences with the RCMP and emergency personnel in the hospital there…These stories make me angry and ashamed for my profession, and wanting to better the health care system for everyone, not just the colonizers.
Her words, when describing the maternal-child health program, sound very much like words I would use to describe my own teaching philosophy. This video is very inspiring and helps me to know there are things we can do about the issues that Indigenous people have with the health care system – change from within the system.