By Sam Pender
“If there is no love, there is no healing.” – Cindy White, Elder-in-Residence, CWP-IH
On Friday, September 30, WCH’s Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health (CWP-IH) recognized the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR) with a panel to discuss some of the TRC Calls To Action and how WCH is working towards building a culturally safe hospital for Indigenous people.
The panel was comprised of five healthcare leaders including WCH’s President and CEO Heather McPherson, Dr. Lisa Richardson, Strategic Lead of Indigenous Health, WCH, Dr. Andrew Boozary, ED of Social Medicine and Population Health, UHN, and Mikaela D. Gabriel, PhD, doctoral fellow at Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health, and was moderated by Lindsay Fechtig, Manager, Office of Indigenous Health, Tamerty Faculty of Medicine, U of T, and touched on a variety of topics including how Toronto hospital’s are working towards achieving calls to action and how to learn from Elders and knowledge systems and apply those learnings to healthcare.
The event also included opening remarks from WCHF’s President and CEO Jennifer Bernard and welcomed WCH’s Elder-in-Residence Cindy White, who led participants in a traditional opening and thanksgiving and closed out the event with closing remarks and a traditional drum song.
The panelists shared incredible insights into how to apply Indigenous culture and learnings to the healthcare system and took audience questions that challenged some systemic practices. The CWP-IH were also selling custom orange shirts outside the event in support of the Toronto Council Fire’s Indigenous Daily Food Bank program, The Gathering Place.
WCH and CWP-IH thanks all panelists and participants for joining us in this important and meaningful event, and hope everyone will take this critical thinking and challenging of oppressive systems with them throughout the year.
Visit the CWP-IH’s We Wear Orange: Honouring National Day for Truth & Reconciliation webpage to see the other ways in which they commemorated this important day.
Click here to review questions, memorable quotes and TRC and MMIWG2ST CTAs for health, education and care providers (adapted), as well as resources mentioned in the panel.
