Exploring First Nation Elder Women’s Relationships with Food from Social, Ecological, and Historical Perspectives

Authors: Hannah Tait Neufeld, Chantelle Richmond, and The Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre

Year: 2020

The ongoing negative health effects of colonization have disproportionately affected Indigenous women, who are disproportionately affected by diabetes, food insecurity, and undernutrition. Indigenous women also perceive their health less positively than men do. This article draws theoretically from the socio-ecological model to explore health inequalities experienced by Indigenous women associated with the intergenerational effects of the residential school legacy, specifically related to food practices.

Ignored to Death: Systemic Racism in the Canadian Healthcare System

Source: Brenda Gunn

Year: n.d.

Widespread health disparities continue for Indigenous peoples in Canada. Indigenous peoples experience lower health outcomes than non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, which is exacerbated by the lack of access to quality health care and lower socio-economic situation (as confirmed by the social determinates of health). Indigenous peoples also lack access to adequate health services, especially in remote communities. In 2015, the Auditor General in Canada concluded that “Health Canada did not have reasonable assurance that eligible First Nations individuals living in remote communities in Manitoba and Ontario had access to clinical and client care services and medical transportation benefits as defined for the purpose of this performance audit.” There is a failure to implement existing policies and strategies.

In Plain Sight: Summary Report

Source: Addressing Racism Review

Year: 2020

In June 2020, claims surfaced about a “Price is Right” game allegedly being played in some B.C. hospital Emergency Departments, in which health care workers were guessing blood alcohol levels of Indigenous patients. The Minister of Health commissioned an independent Review to investigate the “Price is Right” allegations and whether this game or other forms of Indigenous-specific racism are being experienced by Indigenous people using the provincial health care system, make findings of fact, and “to make any recommendations it considers necessary and advisable.”

In Plain Sight: Full Report

Source: Addressing Racism Review; Government of British Columbia

Year: 2020

In June 2020, claims surfaced about a “Price is Right” game allegedly being played in some B.C. hospital Emergency Departments, in which health care workers were guessing blood alcohol levels of Indigenous patients. The Minister of Health commissioned an independent Review to investigate the “Price is Right” allegations and whether this game or other forms of Indigenous-specific racism are being experienced by Indigenous people using the provincial health care system, make findings of fact, and “to make any recommendations it considers necessary and advisable.”

Health and Health Care Implications of Systemic Racism on Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Source: Indigenous Health Working Group of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada

Year: 2016

Family physicians know that supporting a patient’s health requires trust, compassion, and mutual respect. For Indigenous patients and their families, this is not always achieved. Systemic racism has been identified as a major barrier to positive relationships between physicians and Indigenous patients and the best care of Indigenous peoples. This brief guide for physicians helps you understand better the role that systemic racism can play in shaping an Indigenous patient’s clinical experience, and what you can do about it. As Indigenous patients, Indigenous physicians, and allies, we are appealing to you to help us address this pervasive and harmful problem.

Land Back

Source: Yellowhead Institute

Year: 2019

The Red Paper follows a tradition of Indigenous analysis and agenda- making reports, like the first Red Paper released in 1970 by the Indian Association of Alberta in response to Canada’s 1969 White Paper. Our report, “Land Back,” breaks down the current status of land dispossession in Canada, focusing on alienation through resource extraction. We examine various forms of redress and recognition by governments and industry to incentivize Indigenous participation in resource development, while pointing to the gaps in these models. Finally, we consider meaningful Indigenous economies outside of federal and provincial policies and legislation to foreground examples of land reclamation. This report is ultimately about Indigenous consent.

Relational Systems Thinking

Source: Melanie Goodchild

Year: 2021

We explore the notion of the need to decolonize systems thinking and awareness. Taking a specifically Indigenous approach to both knowledge creation and knowledge sharing, we look at awareness-based systems change via a Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) two-row visual code. The authors explore the sacred space between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of thinking and knowing, to identify pathways for peaceful co-existence of epistemologies.

Two-Eyed Seeing: A Framework for Understanding Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Approaches to Indigenous Health Research

Source: Debbie Martin

Year: 2021

This article presents two-eyed seeing as a theoretical framework that embraces the contributions of both Indigenous and Western “ways of knowing” (world-views). It presents key characteristics and principles of these different perspectives and suggests ways in which they might be used together to answer our most pressing questions about the health of Indigenous people and communities.

Systems Thinking in the Healthcare Professions

Source: Margaret Plack, Ellen Goldman, Andrea Scott, Christine Pintz, Debra Herrmann, Kathleen Kline, Tracey Thompson, Shelley Brundage

Year: 2019

Across the healthcare professions, trainees are expected to provide patient-centered care, and to do so they must develop competence in systems-based practice... Effective systems-based care requires an understanding of the features and characteristics of a “system” coupled with an understanding of how to think about that system, analyze it, and approach enhancing it (Johnson et al., 2008). The foundational construct that needs to be applied in systems-based practice is systems thinking (Johnson et al., 2008; Miles, 2004; Trbovich, 2014). Systems thinking is a body of knowledge, theory, and techniques applied to enhance understanding of the interrelationships among elements, patterns of change, and structures underlying complex situations (Three Sigma, 2002).

The Failure of Federal Indigenous Healthcare Policy in Canada

Source: Yellowhead Institute
Year: 2021

The federal government held two days of meetings in 2021 on developing Indigenous health care legislation. These virtual meetings included some, but not all provincial and territorial health ministers, along with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation representatives, including Indigenous doctors, and was partly in response to the racist treatment and death of Joyce Echaquan of the Atikamekw Nation in a Quebec hospital in September of last year. If and when this legislation materializes, it will be a first in Canadian history. This country has never developed a law around Indigenous health care.

Nourish 2050 - Rockefeller Food System Vision Prize Submission

Source: Nourish
Date: 2020

Nourish’s vision was selected as one of the 79 Semi-Finalists (from 1319 Visions submitted) in Rockefeller Foundations’ Food System Vision Prize, which asked for organizations around the world to envision “Regenerative and Nourishing Food Futures for 2050”.

Nourish’s work is movement building for reconnection - with land, food, culture, health, and each other. Disconnection from the ecological and social determinants of health has led to a great untethering of our food and health institutions from the abundant natural and cultural systems that give rise to well-being. Nourish dove deep into imagining how reconnection can radically transform the food and health systems in 30 years. We envisioned how social and cultural shifts can impact tastes and behaviour around our food systems, how new data systems can enhance evidence-based investments into the social and ecological determinants of health, and how centering reconciliation and equity work with the most marginalized can lead to abundance for all.

Wasan Report 2019: Equitable Access to Sustainable Food for All

Source: Nourish
Date: 2019

Nourish believes sustainability and equity are interwoven. We convened a group of 21 leaders on traditional Anishinaabe and Ojibwe territory at Wasan Island on Lake Rosseau from Sunday, October 6 - Wednesday, October 9, 2019 for a conversation on how the health and community sectors can collaborate to support and anchor Equitable Access to Sustainable Food for All.

Link to download.

Nourish Phase 1 Developmental Evaluation (2016 - 2019)

Source: Nourish
Date: 2019

This summary report follows the activity of Nourish from Fall 2015 to Spring 2019. The intent of this evaluation is to help the program staff, lead partners and project advisors examine how the initiative took shape, determine what systems effects were observed, and assess signs of progress towards longer-term objectives.

Download link.

Nourish Developmental Evaluation: Early Insights

Source: Nourish
Year: 2018

The developmental evaluation explores four inter-related aspects of the Nourish initiative: 1) Innovator Program; 2) Projects; 3) Network & Narrative and 4) Policy. The intent of this evaluation is to help the program staff, lead partners and project advisors examine how the initiative has started to take shape, adjust strategies, and assess early signs of progress towards longer-term objectives.

Link to download report.

Wasan Report 2018: Seeing Environmental Nutrition in Health Care in New Ways

Source: Nourish
Year: 2018

The overlap of health care and food systems is multifaceted. In 2018 Nourish convened 22 leaders from across healthcare, government, food systems and philanthropy together for a four day retreat on Wasan Island in order to explore the opportunities around environmental nutrition in health care. Environmental nutrition (2014), a concept coined by Health Care Without Harm, reframes healthy food as contributing beyond individual well-being towards a collective social responsibility for creating healthy communities and a sustainable food system. Read a blog about the retreat for an overview, or go into detail with the full report.

Anchor Institutions

Source: Mowatt Centre & Atkinson Foundation
Year: 2015

Unlike many corporations that come and go from communities, anchor institutions are public and nonprofit institutions that stay put. This report explores how we can spend our resources and procure services in ways that create opportunities for people who live on the economic margins.

Maximizing the Capacities of Advanced Education Institutions to Build Social Infrastructure for Canadian Communities

Source: RECODE initiative and Simon Fraser University
Year: 2017

A discussion paper exploring how higher education institutions can harness and leverage their assets (financial, physical, relational, research and education) to build social infrastructure that will positively impact communities and advance societal well-being.

Embracing an Anchor Mission: ProMedica’s All-In Strategy

Source: HealthCare Anchor Network
Year: 2018

This report offers an in-depth look at how the Toledo, Ohio based health system aligned its institutional operations and clinical practice to better tackle the social determinants of health.

Wasan Report 2017: Food is fundamental to health and healing

For four days from Thursday, September 7th to Sunday, September 10, 19 leaders from across healthcare, government and food sectors convened together on Wasan Island in order to explore the role of food in healthcare in Canada. The core belief of the group was that food is fundamental to health and healing, but is currently undervalued within the healthcare system. Through systems mapping, the group explored the dynamics of the current healthcare system and prototyped actionable opportunities for a future of food in health care that nourishes patients, communities and the environment.

Read the summary report here.

"Hunger was never absent": How residential school diets shaped current patterns of diabetes among Indigenous peoples in Canada

Source: Mosby, I. & Galloway, T. CMAJ 2017 August 14;189:E1043-5. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.170448
Year: 2017

One of the most consistent themes in testimony provided to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was the common experience of hunger at residential schools. In his statement to the TRC, survivor Andrew Paul spoke of the unrelenting hunger he experienced during his time at Aklavik Roman Catholic Residential School: “We cried to have something good to eat before we sleep. A lot of the times the food we had was rancid, full of maggots, stink. Sometimes we would sneak away from school to go visit our aunts or uncles, just to have a piece of bannock."