Health Research and Indigenous Peoples
"... the term 'research' is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism. The word itself, 'research', is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world's vocabulary.... The ways in which scientific research is implicated in the worst excesses of colonialism remains a powerful remembered history for many of the world's colonized peoples."
Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999), "Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples," pg. 1.
Inventing the Thrifty Gene by ISBN: 9780887559402Publication Date: 2021Though First Nations communities in Canada have historically lacked access to clean water, affordable food, and equitable healthcare, they have never lacked access to well-funded scientists seeking to study them. Inventing the Thrifty Gene exposes the exploitative nature of settler science with Indigenous subjects, the flawed scientific theories stemming from faulty assumptions of Indigenous decline and disappearance, as well as the severe inequities in Canadian healthcare that persist even today.
Medical Racism
Racism in the Canadian health care system is endemic... Canada’s current model of delivering health care fails either to show an understanding of or to address the subset of health determinants that affect Indigenous patients. Ingrained problems of racism and discrimination will not be solved until the system is changed so that health care is delivered in a way that is culturally competent and inclusive of an Indigenous model.
Boyer, Y. (2017). Healing racism in Canadian health care. Int J Environ Res Public Health 189(46).
Topics
- In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-Specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care byPublication Date: 2020In June 2020, B.C.’s Minister of Health commissioned an Independent Review of Indigenous-specific racism in the provincial health care system. That review was published as the In Plain Sight Report, which details the systemic nature of medical racism within BC's healthcare system.
In September 2008, Brian Sinclair, a middle-aged, non-Status Anishinaabeg resident of Manitoba's capital city, arrived in the emergency room of Winnipeg's major downtown hospital. He was left untreated and unattended to for thirty-four hours, and ultimately died from an easily treatable infection. His death reflects a particular structure of indifference born of and maintained by colonialism.
- Out of Sightby the Brian Sinclair Working Group. A summary of the events leading up to Brian Sinclair's death, the inquest, and recommendations from the working group.
- Ignored to Death: The case of Brian SinclairSubmission to EMRIP the Study on Health.
Structures of indifference: an indigenous life and death in a Canadian city by Call Number: SAD M33 S7 2018ISBN: 9780887558351Publication Date: 2018Structures of Indifference examines an Indigenous life and death in a Canadian city, and what it reveals about the ongoing history of colonialism.
- Shapeshifters, systems thinking and settler colonial logic: Expanding the framework of analysis of Indigenous health equityby Ray, L., Wylie, L., Corrado, A. M. (2022). Uses the case of Brian Sinclair to understand health inequities in Canada, through an Indigenous narrative lens.
See also the University of Manitoba's Indigenous Health research guide: For Brian Sinclair.
- Joyce's PrincipleOn September 28, 2020, Joyce Echaquan, an Atimatekw woman, died due to medical neglect in a Quebec hospital. Before she died, she livestreamed hospital staff who hurled racist slurs and abuse at her. Coroner Géhane Kamel stated that Echaquan's “death could have been avoided”, and concluded that the “racism and prejudice that Mrs Echaquan faced was certainly a contributing factor to her death”. Joyce's Principle is a document drafted by the Council of the Atikamekw of Manawan after her death, as a call to action and a commitment from governments to end an intolerable and unacceptable situation.
- Confronting medical colonialism and obstetric violence in CanadaSamir Shaheen-Hussain, Alisa Lombard, Suzy Basile (2023), The Lancet. "Echaquan was entitled to respectful, dignified care. Instead, capturing health-care workers treating her disdainfully with slurs and taunts based on degrading stereotypes of Indigenous women."
- Jordan's PrincipalJordan River Anderson from Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba was born in 1999 with multiple disabilities. Different levels of government fund different services for First Nations children, and this can lead to payment disputes. Jordan was caught in one of these payment disputes, and as a result, did not receive the care he needed. He passed away at the age of five in hospital, where he had remained since birth.
Jordan's Principle was advanced by First Nations and adopted as a legal, ongoing obligation by the federal government. It states that First Nations children would get the products, services and supports they need, when they need them. Payments would be worked out later. - Toward the full and proper implementation of Jordan's Principle: An elusive goal to dateBy Cindy Blackstock (2016). ...The federal government adopted a definition of Jordan’s Principle that was so narrow (complex medical needs with multiple service providers) that no child ever qualified. This narrow definition has been found to be unlawful by the Federal Court of Canada and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The present commentary describes Jordan’s Principle, the legal cases that have considered it and the implications of those decisions for health care providers.
- Jordan’s Principle 5 Years Later: A Band-Aid for Government Neglect?by Creezon Iamsees. Yellowhead Institute, Issue 82 | Dec 14, 2020.
Fighting for a hand to hold: confronting medical colonialism against Indigenous children in Canada by ISBN: 9780228003601Publication Date: 2020Launched by healthcare providers in January 2018, the #aHand2Hold campaign confronted the Quebec government's practice of separating children from their families during medical evacuation airlifts, which disproportionately affected remote and northern Indigenous communities. Shaheen-Hussain connects the draconian medevac practice with often-disregarded crimes and medical violence inflicted specifically on Indigenous children.
Articles
- Colonial Geographies: Indigenous Access to Primary Care in British ColumbiaThis article considers the demonstrated lack of access to primary health services in remote Indigenous communities in British Columbia as a form of structural exclusion shaped by the history of settler colonialism.
- Undertreatment, Overtreatment, and Coercion into Treatment: Identifying and Documenting Anti-Indigenous Racism in Health Care in CanadaIntroduction to recent examples of Indigenous experiences of undertreatment, overtreatment, and coercion into treatment in Canadian healthcare.