National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: The Right to Health

Written By Malachite Goudie-Groat
Person in a forest with an umbrella, facing away. Text overlay that reads National Day for Truth and Reconciliation: The Right to Health. We all have a fundamental human right to have an equal opportunity to our highest standard of health.
“Colonialism has interrupted ways of sharing knowledge, families, communities, cultural land-based practices, and languages, all of which are important for health and wellness.”

How colonization has created health inequities

The text for this section and parts of the final section can also be found on our Land Acknowledgment page here if you have not seen it before or wish to read it in smaller pieces.

Currently in BC, 198 distinct First Nations, 39 chartered Métis communities, and many Inuit people living away from home in communities across British Columbia hold their own unique ancestral legal orders, justice systems, well-established health practices, concepts of health, and traditional healers. Colonization, including land theft and the application of colonial laws, have disrupted these sovereign legal and health care systems in numerous ways. The ongoing intentional displacement of communities from their traditional territories and the separation of children from their families and communities undermine protective factors and interrupt ways of sharing knowledge, families, communities, cultural land-based practices, and languages.

The colonial dynamics continue today in many public systems, including the health and legal systems. Involuntary mental health and substance use treatment, enforced by the colonial health and legal systems, can be experienced as yet another source of control over Indigenous people that pathologizes and criminalizes the impacts of colonialism. Recognizing this systemic context is foundational to understanding the impacts of genocide, colonization, and racism in colonial health and legal systems on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people, as well as their resistance to and resilience from those systems.

What is required for reconciliation regarding rights to health?

We all have a fundamental human right to have an equal opportunity to our highest standard of health. While there are many steps that are required for reconciliation regarding rights to health and better health services for Indigenous people, we have summarized four points from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada - Calls to Action (TRC C2A), National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls - Calls to Action (NIMMIWG C2A), and United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Links are included to each of these reports and further reading is encouraged.

There is no shortage of recommendations and guidance on what we need to do to support reconciliation related to health; we need to take action to implement them. We have compiled existing recommendations in the following four areas to highlight important steps to ensure that Indigenous people enjoy the human right to the highest attainable standard of health.

Expand each item in the menu below to see the context and find the links to the reports that informed our summary.

  • For example, see the following TRC Calls to Action:

    18. We call upon Federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to acknowledge that the current state of Aboriginal health in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian government policies, including residential schools, and to recognize and implement the health-care rights of Aboriginal people as identified in international law, constitutional law, and under the Treaties.

    20. In order to address the jurisdictional disputes concerning Aboriginal people who do not reside on reserves, we call upon the federal government to recognize, respect, and address the distinct health needs of the Métis, Inuit, and off-reserve Aboriginal peoples.

    For example, see the following articles from UNDRIP:

    Article 3
    Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

    Article 4
    Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions

    Article 18
    Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision-making institutions.

    Article 19
    States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.

    For example, see the following Call to Action from the NIMMIWG:

    7.6 We call upon institutions and health service providers to ensure that all persons involved in the provision of health services to Indigenous Peoples receive ongoing training, education, and awareness in areas including, but not limited to:

    • the history of colonialism in the oppression and genocide of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations Peoples;

    • anti-bias and anti-racism;

    • local language and culture; and

    • local health and healing practices.

  • For example, see the following TRC Call to Action:

    21. We call upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.

    For example, see the following articles from UNDRIP:

    Article 5
    Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their right to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.

    Article 24
    1. Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.

    2. Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right.

    For example, see the following NIMMIWG Calls to Action:

    3.2 We call upon all governments to provide adequate, stable, equitable, and ongoing funding for Indigenous-centred and community-based health and wellness services that are accessible and culturally appropriate, and meet the health and wellness needs of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The lack of health and wellness services within Indigenous communities continues to force Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people to relocate in order to access care. Governments must ensure that health and wellness services are available and accessible within Indigenous communities and wherever Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people reside.

    3.4 We call upon all governments to ensure that all Indigenous communities receive immediate and necessary resources, including funding and support, for the establishment of sustainable, permanent, no-barrier, preventative, accessible, holistic, wraparound services, including mobile trauma and addictions recovery teams. We further direct that trauma and addictions treatment programs be paired with other essential services such as mental health services and sexual exploitation and trafficking services as they relate to each individual case of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

    7.1 We call upon all governments and health service providers to recognize that Indigenous Peoples – First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, including 2SLGBTQQIA people – are the experts in caring for and healing themselves, and that health and wellness services are most effective when they are designed and delivered by the Indigenous Peoples they are supposed to serve, in a manner consistent with and grounded in the practices, world views, cultures, languages, and values of the diverse Inuit, Métis, and First Nations communities they serve.

    7.2 We call upon all governments and health service providers to ensure that health and wellness services for Indigenous Peoples include supports for healing from all forms of unresolved trauma, including intergenerational, multigenerational, and complex trauma. Health and wellness programs addressing trauma should be Indigenous-led, or in partnership with Indigenous communities, and should not be limited in time or approaches.

    7.3 We call upon all governments and health service providers to support Indigenous-led prevention initiatives in the areas of health and community awareness, including, but not limited to programming:

    • for Indigenous men and boys

    • related to suicide prevention strategies for youth and adults

    • related to sexual trafficking awareness and no-barrier exiting

    • specific to safe and healthy relationships

    • specific to mental health awareness

    • related to 2SLGBTQQIA issues and sex positivity

    7.4 We call upon all governments and health service providers to provide necessary resources, including funding, to support the revitalization of Indigenous health, wellness, and child and Elder care practices. For healing, this includes teachings that are land-based and about harvesting and the use of Indigenous medicines for both ceremony and health issues. This may also include: matriarchal teachings on midwifery and postnatal care for both woman and child; early childhood health care; palliative care; Elder care and care homes to keep Elders in their home communities as valued Knowledge Keepers; and other measures. Specific programs may include but are not limited to correctional facilities, healing centres, hospitals, and rehabilitation centres.

  • For example, see the following TRC Calls to Action:

    19. We call upon the federal government, in consultation with Aboriginal peoples, to establish measurable goals to identify and close the gaps in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities, and to publish annual progress reports and assess long-term trends.

    20. In order to address the jurisdictional disputes concerning Aboriginal people who do not reside on reserves, we call upon the federal government to recognize, respect, and address the distinct health needs of the Métis, Inuit, and off-reserve Aboriginal peoples.

    For example, see the following articles from UNDRIP:

    Article 2
    Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and equal to all other peoples and individuals and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity

    Article 24
    1. Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.

    2. Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right.

    For example, see the following NIMMIWG Call to Action:

    7.6 We call upon institutions and health service providers to ensure that all persons involved in the provision of health services to Indigenous Peoples receive ongoing training, education, and awareness in areas including, but not limited to:

    • the history of colonialism in the oppression and genocide of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations Peoples;

    • anti-bias and anti-racism;

    • local language and culture; and

    • local health and healing practices.

  • For example, see the following TRC Call to Action:

    22. We call upon those who can effect change within the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices and use them in the treatment of Aboriginal patients in collaboration with Aboriginal healers and Elders where requested by Aboriginal patients.

    For example, see the following from UNDRIP:

    Article 24
    1. Indigenous peoples have the right to their traditional medicines and to maintain their health practices, including the conservation of their vital medicinal plants, animals and minerals. Indigenous individuals also have the right to access, without any discrimination, to all social and health services.

    2. Indigenous individuals have an equal right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. States shall take the necessary steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of this right.

    For example, see the following Calls to Action from the NIMMIWG:

    7.4 We call upon all governments and health service providers to provide necessary resources, including funding, to support the revitalization of Indigenous health, wellness, and child and Elder care practices. For healing, this includes teachings that are land-based and about harvesting and the use of Indigenous medicines for both ceremony and health issues. This may also include: matriarchal teachings on midwifery and postnatal care for both woman and child; early childhood health care; palliative care; Elder care and care homes to keep Elders in their home communities as valued Knowledge Keepers; and other measures. Specific programs may include but are not limited to correctional facilities, healing centres, hospitals, and rehabilitation centres

    7.6 We call upon institutions and health service providers to ensure that all persons involved in the provision of health services to Indigenous Peoples receive ongoing training, education, and awareness in areas including, but not limited to:

    • the history of colonialism in the oppression and genocide of Inuit, Métis, and First Nations Peoples;

    • anti-bias and anti-racism;

    • local language and culture; and

    • local health and healing practices.

As well, below are more important calls to action to consider in order to take part in reconciliation regarding Indigenous health and health services.

From TRC C2A:

23. We call upon all levels of government to:

i) Increase the number of Aboriginal professionals working in the health-care field.

ii) Ensure the retention of Aboriginal health-care providers in Aboriginal communities.

iii) Provide cultural competency training for all health-care professionals.

24. We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

From UNDRIP:

2. Indigenous peoples and individuals are free and equal to all other peoples and individuals and have the right to be free from any kind of discrimination, in the exercise of their rights, in particular that based on their indigenous origin or identity.

From NIMMIWG C2A:

7.5 We call upon governments, institutions, organizations, and essential and non-essential service providers to support and provide permanent and necessary resources for specialized intervention, healing and treatment programs, and services and initiatives offered in Indigenous languages.

What Health Justice is doing

Health Justice’s work focuses on provincial laws that apply throughout the area that is colonially named British Columbia. These colonial laws impact Indigenous people living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded First Nation territories as well as land that is governed by treaties. We strive to reflect this context in our work by focusing on the causes of inequities experienced by Indigenous people in BC: historic and ongoing systemic colonialism, discrimination, and genocide when we advocate for improving mental health law. At Health Justice, decolonization and reconciliation is important to what we do and we try to ensure we do that well by consulting our Indigenous Leadership Group (ILG) on our work and consult the above calls to action to guide our recommendations.

What to do for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day) in 2023:

Malachite Goudie-Groat
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