Racism toward Indigenous Peoples continues to permeate throughout the health care system, a reality the authors know all too well in their shared and yet unique personal and professional experiences. Although acknowledging and speaking up against racial injustice is daunting, and is often met with disregard or inaction, the authors contend that this is a necessary undertaking to redress the ongoing harms of colonialism. Correspondingly, those who do not speak up must not have their voices silenced. Instead, the perspectives that Indigenous Peoples have regarding their own experiences of racism must be heeded seriously and produce real and tangible solutions. In narrating their own encounters of confronting and challenging racism, the authors juxtapose activism and resistance with the preservation of Indigenous Knowledge as a catalyst for propelling the necessary changes forward within health care to end racism. To be truly impactful, all efforts taken to address racism must occur alongside advancing equity of care and human rights for and by Indigenous Peoples at individual, community, and systemic levels. Changes are not needed after more evidence. The time to act is now.
Indigenous Peoples experience the greatest health inequities in Canada and other colonized countries, yet are routinely excluded from health-related policy decisions. Those advocating for Indigenous health equity are often left wrestling with the question: What constitutes, and what can foster, meaningful involvement of Indigenous Peoples in the contemporary health policy climate? Twenty (n = 20) in-depth, open-ended interviews with Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders in health and health policy were conducted with a view to understanding what constitutes meaningful involvement of Indigenous Peoples in health policy decision-making. The analysis suggests meaningful involvement requires attuning to underlying power dynamics inherent in policy making and taking action to decolonize and transform the policy system itself. Based on these findings, the authors offer a framework for meaningful involvement.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.