LibGuides: Indigenous Studies: Health and Health Care

Finding Resources at OC Library

Keyword Search
Subject Headings

IMPORTANT: the dominant structure for organizing information is from a western perspective, for this reason you may need to use outdated (sometimes offensive) terminology to find resources related to Indigenous peoples; please contact us if you'd like assistance navigating this.

Combine keywords related to the concept of Indigenous identity with keywords related to your area of interest.

For example:

Indigenous	Aboriginal	"First Nations"
Inuit	Métis	"Indians of North America"
Indian	Native	Name of Nation or Community (e.g. Secwépemc)

AND

Health, "Health care"	"Traditional medicine"	"Culturally competent care"
"Medical racism"	"Traditional healing"	Specific health issue (e.g. cancer, diabetes)

Search Tips:

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase (e.g. "First Nations").
Use an asterisk to search for words with the same stem (e.g. Indigen* retrieves Indigenous, Indigeneity).
Terminology changes over time. You many need to search for alternative spellings of a word, for example: Sto:lo, Stó:lô, Staulo, Stahlo or you may need to search for alternate words, for example: Kwakiutl/Kwakwaka'wakw or Nootka/Nuu-chah-nulth

Subject headings are a tool designed to help researchers find similar materials. These are only some examples of the many subject headings that Okanagan College Library uses. Spend a few minutes exploring them when you find a book in the catalogue that supports your research.

Search by Subject Terms

Indigenous peoples -- Medical care -- Canada
Native peoples -- Medical care -- Canada
Racism in medicine -- Canada
Indigenous peoples -- Health aspects
Nursing and health research
Medicine, Primitive -- Research -- Social aspects -- Health aspects
Medically underserved areas -- Canada, Northern

Below is an example of where to find subject areas that are part of an item's record. You can click on them to find other materials with the same subject heading.

Reports & Discussion Papers

In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care
[2020] The report is intended to explore the prejudice and discrimination experienced by Indigenous people in the health care system and to make recommendations that will help eliminate Indigenous-specific racism and create substantive equity in health care experiences, services and outcomes.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
Calls to Action from the TRC to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation. Calls 18-24 and 55 pertain to health. See also: HeathCareCAN Issue Brief on these calls to action.
Measuring Cultural Safety in Health Systems
[Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2021]
Social Determinants of Inuit Health in Canada
[Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, 2014]
Social Determinants of Métis Health
[National Aboriginal Health Organization, Métis Centre]
First Peoples, Second Class Treatment: The role of racism in the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada
[Wellesley Institute, 2015]

Indigenous Children and Healthcare

What is Jordan's Principle
[Curio.ca streaming video, 41 sec]
Jordan's Principle
[Government of Canada] Jordan's Principle makes sure all First Nations children living in Canada can access the products, services and supports they need, when they need them.
Inuit Child First Initiative
[Government of Canada] The Inuit Child First Initiative ensures Inuit children have access to the essential government funded health, social and educational products, services and supports they need, when they need them.

Fighting for a Hand to Hold: confronting medical colonialism against Indigenous children in Canada
A narrative of the #aHand2Hold campaign which confronted the Quebec government's practice of separating children from their families during medical evacuation airlifts, disproportionately affecting remote and northern Indigenous communities. It exposes the medical establishment's role in the displacement, colonization, and genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Indigenous Health Researchers

The National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health has an Indigenous Health Researchers Database. This includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers who are "affiliated with a Canadian university and have a wide range of expertise related to the health of Indigenous peoples." Profiles include the Indigenous Health Themes the researchers work within, contact information, and selected publications. Search can be refined by Indigenous population (Indigenous - general, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Urban Indigenous) that research has been conducted on/with.

Indigenous Health Researchers Database

Featured Books

All Our Relations: finding the path forward
In Canada, one-third of all deaths among Indigenous youth are due to suicide. The author explains how the aftershocks of cultural genocide have resulted in a rise in youth suicides in Indigenous communities in Canada and beyond. Included is the push by First Nations leadership in Northern Ontario for a new national health strategy that could lead communities towards healing from the pain of suicide.
Determinants of Indigenous Peoples' Health
This collection explores how multiple health determinants, such as colonialism, gender, culture, early childhood development, the environment, geography, medicine, and policy, impact the health status of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Grounded in expert voices of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis writers from coast to coast.
Introduction to Aboriginal Health and Health Care in Canada
The book places Aboriginal health in Canada within its historical and philosophical context as it addresses social and clinical approaches to major health issues facing this population. The distinctive features of Aboriginal health and healing are discussed.
Medicine Unbundled: a Journey Through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care
An investigative exploration of the separate "Indian hospitals" that existed in Canada for many decades, told through memoir, archival research, and interviews with survivors.
Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City
Brian Sinclair, an Anishinaabe resident of Winnipeg, was left untreated and unattended to in an urban hospital, and ultimately died from an easily treatable infection. The authors explore how once erased and ignored, he came to represent diffuse, yet singular and largely dehumanized ideas about Indigenous people, modernity, and decline in cities.
Teaching Cultural Competence in Nursing and Health Care, Third Edition
This book offers a comprehensive approach for planning, implementing, and evaluating cultural competence education strategies and programs. Chapters address topics such as curriculum, train-the-trainer programs; classroom and clinical settings; immersion experiences, service learning, simulation, and nursing skills labs; and cultural safety.

Featured Videos

Thunder Blanket
[Curio.ca streaming video] A five-part short documentary series, which explores a young Aboriginal woman’s battle against breast cancer.
Canada's struggle to provide health care to northern communities
[CBC, streaming video, 13 min] Canada is struggling to provide health care to northern communities, according to one doctor who travels monthly to provide his services. Dr. Mike Kirlew says that the level of care his patients in northern communities have access to is not even close to what is available to other Canadians.

Featured Articles

Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) and Ethical Space
Sinclaire, M., Schultz, A., Linton, J. & McGibbon, E. (2021). Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) and Ethical Space: Ways to Disrupt Health Researchers’ Colonial Attraction to a Singular Biomedical Worldview. Witness, 3(1).
Mental wellness needs of two Indigenous communities: Bases for culturally competent clinical services
Gould, B., MacQuarrie, C., O’Connell, M. E., & Bourassa, C. (2021). Mental wellness needs of two Indigenous communities: Bases for culturally competent clinical services. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 62(3), 213–226.
Moving toward holistic wellness, empowerment and self-determination for Indigenous peoples in Canada
Auger, M., Howell, T., & Gomes, T. (2016). Moving toward holistic wellness, empowerment and self-determination for Indigenous peoples in Canada : Can traditional Indigenous health care practices increase ownership over health and health care decisions? Canadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique, 107(4–5), e393–e398.
Interventions to improve cultural competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA: a systematic review
Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., & Tsey, K. (2015). Interventions to improve cultural competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA: a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care : Journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, 27(2), 89–98.
Exploring Indigenous Concepts of Health: The Dimensions of Métis and Inuit Health
Richmond, C.A., Ross, N.A., & Bernier, J. (2007). Exploring Indigenous Concepts of Health: The Dimensions of Métis and Inuit Health. Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi). 115.

Featured Podcasts

Canadian Health Information
October 25, 2021: The State of Indigenous Health Care in Canada
Dr. Evan Adams, from Tla’amin First Nation near Powell River, a renowned physician and public health expert, talks about the legacy of the Residential School system, its long-term impact on Indigenous health and the state of medical care for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada.
Cultural Humility
Episode 39: Indigenizing Mental Health
Guest Jill Fish, PhD (Counselling Psychology), strives towards the integration of science, practice, and culture in her work, in which she uses innovative story-based strategies, traditional medicines, and cultural modalities of healing to promote the health and well-being of Native peoples.
DocTalks
Episode 2: Putting Indigenous cultural safety into practice
Dr Terri Aldred and Len Pierre to discuss how to define and understand cultural safety and the intricacies of addressing this systemic problem.
Interior Voices
Aboriginal health and wellness podcast series from Interior Health that explores the intersection of health and culture in the workplace, our everyday lives and patient care.
Voices from the Field
A podcast series produced by the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health (NCCIH), which focuses on innovative research and community-based initiatives promoting the health and well-being of First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada.

Featured News

Joyce Echaquan Archives
[APTN] Joyce Echaquan live streamed mistreatment she was receiving from healthcare workers, who taunted her moments before she died in a hospital in Joliette, outside Montreal. Echaquan’s death has sparked conversations about systemic racism in the healthcare system. Includes APTN's coverage on this topic.
Forced sterilizations of Indigenous women: One more act of genocide
[The Conversation, 2019]
Emerging from the Long Shadow of Canada's Indian Hospitals
[The Local, 2021] From racially segregated hospitals to signs of Indigenous self-determination in health care.

Other Resources

First Nations Health Authority
Taking a leadership role, the FNHA actively works with its health partners to embed cultural safety and humility into health service delivery and improve health outcomes for First Nations people.
Office of Indigenous Health
[Province of British Columbia]
Indigenous Health Reports & Publications
[Province of British Columbia]
Indigenous Health Care in Canada
[Government of Canada]
Statistics on Indigenous Health in Canada
[Statistics Canada] Search results for Indigenous Health and Well Being
National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health
Using a holistic, co-ordinated and strengths-based approach to health, the NCCIH fosters links between evidence, knowledge, practice and policy while advancing self-determination and Indigenous knowledge in support of optimal health and well-being.
Canadian Indigenous Nurses Association
Mission: To improve the health of Indigenous Peoples, by supporting Indigenous Nurses and by promoting the development and practice of Indigenous Health Nursing.