Inside "The Green Room"

| 30 September 2021

Today marks the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This new federal statutory holiday is designated to honour the children, survivors, families, and communities impacted by residential schools. As Ontario has not followed suit and acknowledged the need for this to be a provincial holiday as well, organizations and employers have been left to determine how to mark this important day of reflection.

Queen’s University, Queen’s Health Sciences, and the Department of Family Medicine have all set aside time and planned events to recognize this important day. Our third strategic priority is to “Incorporate Social Accountability and Health Equity Throughout our Work.” On this day, I invite all of you to focus on how you as an individual, our department as an organization, and the health-care service settings we work in can all contribute to both acknowledging the devastating truths outlined in the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and how we can contribute to achieving progress on the 94 calls to action.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to participate in an online forum with Elder Willie Ermine discussing his ongoing work on creating “ethical space” for meaningful collaboration, partnership, and understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers and health-care providers. I invite you to watch a short video from several years ago as an introduction to this idea.

It was a reminder of how reconciliation is an ongoing, lifelong commitment to making positive change and re-envisioning the possibilities for how we as settlers and uninvited guests on the traditional territories of Indigenous Peoples can live and work together with them in support of their vision and aspirations for a healthy and fulfilling life as individuals, communities, and nations. The forum was organized by the Indigenous Primary Health Care and Policy Research Network in Alberta, one of several CIHR-funded Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research that I am privileged to be a part of. We have a focus on improving primary care for Indigenous Peoples and communities. If you are interested in how primary health care can be a part of the bridge from truth to reconciliation, you can visit our website for more information.

In whatever way you choose to recognize this day, thank you for taking the time to reflect today. I encourage all of you to make your own personal commitment to this important journey.

Dr. Michael Green

Department Head

Department Head Blog

Publish Date

Thu, 09/30/2021 - 09:19

Inside "The Green Room"

Inside "The Green Room"

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