Exposing BC Gov's anti-white, DEI, Agenda
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 27 minutes
Words per Minute
141.88121
Summary
In this episode, Dr. Kate Youngblood and Dr. Danielle Bainsmith talk about the challenges of unlearning and undoing systemic white supremacy and Indigenous Specific Racism within the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer. This episode is presented in partnership with the Centre for Excellence in Indigenous Health and the First Nations Health Authority.
Transcript
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Good morning and welcome to our UBC Learning Circle, Unlearning, Undoing, Systemic White
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Supremacy and Indigenous Specific Racism with the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer
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with Dr. Kate Youngblood and Dr. Danielle Bainsmith. Today's conversation is presented in
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partnership with the Center for Excellence in Indigenous Health. We'd like to thank the First
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Nations Health Authority for generously funding the UBC Learning Circle and allowing us to have
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these conversations. Before we formally begin, I'd like to acknowledge with respect and gratitude
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that I'm joining you from the unceded territories of the Muscoom, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh
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Nations. Please feel free to introduce yourselves in the chat box below. Today's Learning Circle
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will be exploring the unlearning and undoing systemic white supremacy and Indigenous Specific
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racism within the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer with Dr. Kate Youngblood and
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Dr. Danielle Bainsmith. I'll ask our guests to introduce themselves in just a few moments.
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For those of you who don't know me, my name is Sarane Squawkin. I'm the Learning Circle Manager.
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I'm Seelk Okanagan on my mother's side and Hickory Apache on my father's side. I'll be your moderator
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for today's discussion. Joining us working behind the scenes is Cynthia, our Production Coordinator,
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and our two work learning students, Kira and Nicole. They'll be in the background interacting
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with everyone in the chat. Finally, before we get into today's discussion, I'll provide a gentle
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heads up that the topics covered may be sensitive or emotionally triggering. Please make sure that you
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feel that you are looking after yourself and if at any point you feel that you need to talk to a friend,
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elder, counsellor, family member, don't hesitate to do so. We have some prompts in the chat for you if
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you need additional support. Now I'll turn it over to our guests to introduce themselves.
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Fort Nelson First Nation, Bain, Pi Masson, Pi Aden, Pi Dumen, Pi Faneuf, Pi Lamirande,
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Minon de Femi. Good morning. Hello, everybody. It's so wonderful to be with you all on this day.
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It was very exciting to see so many friendly and familiar names in the chat. And thank you for the
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shout out to my shirt, which is Native Love Notes. I wore it specially today because who doesn't love
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a granny hanky? My name is Danielle Bainsmith, and it's a real honor and a privilege to be able to
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introduce myself with my ancestral languages of Michif and Slavey. I told you that I'm Métis and
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I'm Echodene. My family ties are in the Red River Valley in Winnipeg, as well as Fort Nelson First
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Nation. And I live on Lekwungen territories, but this morning I'm calling in from the territories
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of the Hosseinich Nations, specifically Tseo First Nation. And I'm very, very grateful to be here.
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I'm a cisgendered hetero lady who uses she and her pronouns, and that creates heteronormative blind
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spots. So I like to include that as an invitation to any two-spirit relatives in the room today in the
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circle to an invitation to hold me accountable as those heteronormative ways of being show up.
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And I don't see them because they're blind spots. So I invite you to hold me accountable and let me
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know how and when they show up. I get to work as BC's Deputy Provincial Health Officer for Indigenous
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Health. I'm very grateful to do that. And I'm so excited to be here to share a little bit of what
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we've been up to over the last year and a half. And so I'm very grateful to be able to do that with
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my friend and my sidekick, Dr. Kate Youngblood, who will introduce herself in a moment. And it's
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really, really important for us to also share that none of this would be possible without the full and
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unwavering support of Dr. Bonnie Henry, who is, of course, BC's Provincial Health Officer and is the
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person who shows this incredible enabling leadership to let us do this work. So we wanted to honor her
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today. In addition, acknowledging all of the territories that we're joining from and all of
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the medicines that are in those lands and waters and how grateful we are. Everything that we're
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sharing today comes from a really humble place. And we're just really excited to share what we've
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been learning because it's been, yeah, just exciting work to be a part of. And we want to recognize that
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it is fully based on the teachings that we've received from elders and mentors and different
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teachers along the way. So wanting to acknowledge that as well. So I will take a moment to share my
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screen, which worked in the tech check. So hopefully it's going to work just as smoothly right now.
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And I will pass it over to Kate while I'm doing that to introduce herself.
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Kate Youngblood. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here today. My name is Kate Youngblood.
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I am a white occupier on the territory of the Hunkuminum and the Squamish-Nitchum-speaking peoples
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of Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish nations. I'm right by the river today. So really grateful for the
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rain and that good water. I am a postdoc fellow in the office of the provincial health officer. I am an
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epidemiologist and mixed methods researcher by training. And I am so glad to work side by side
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with Danielle and all of our awesome colleagues in the OPHO, including Dr. Henry, and very glad to be
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here with you today. We've gotten into a discipline of not just acknowledging territory,
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but also acknowledging rights in our opening. And Danielle, if you could go to the next slide,
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that'd be great. Okay. So I want to acknowledge that First Nations territory is stretched to every
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inch of this province, and that inherent rights rooted in connection to land and territory have
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never been ceded or surrendered here. These inherent rights are upheld in international, national,
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national and provincial law. And so as a settler person here, I have obligations to these inherent
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rights. And I recognize that there are long standing First Nations laws and systems integrally
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tied to the lands and waters of these territories. And I also recognize generations of Indigenous
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rights holders who are First Nations, Métis, and Inuit from elsewhere in Canada, in Canada. And they
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also call these lands and waters home. And especially this month, I also want to recognize the descendants
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of enslaved Africans who now make these territories home. I recognize their work against white supremacy
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and anti-Black racism. And I am starting to understand my responsibilities in relation to those
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systems of oppression. And yeah, that's a work in progress for me. So I want to make that acknowledgement
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as well. Over to you, Danielle. Briefly, what we are working towards is to unlearn inherited and systemic
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white supremacist ways of thinking to become meaningfully inclusive of diverse worldviews, perspectives,
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and approaches, and approaches, and to undoing inherited systemic white supremacist approaches
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that are hardwired into our structures, policies, practices, norms, and values within our office.
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And so as you will discover as we go through the rest of our sharing this morning, Kate and I love
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metaphors. And there are many that we find useful in the work. In relation to this kind of overarching
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purpose to the work, we really think about the unlearning as being able to see more clearly represented
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by these glasses, to be able to see this sort of insidious white supremacy and anti-indigenous
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racism that's embedded all around us. And then when we see it, to get to work and start to take actions.
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And so we represent that with these gloves that we put on. These are reconciliation gloves
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to remind us that this is really action oriented work. We have a number of guiding principles that
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help to ground us in the work. And so we acknowledge that systemic white supremacy is an everyday problem
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that requires everyday attention. And we are very grateful to Joe Gallagher for sharing that teaching
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with us. Truth comes before reconciliation. So we try and be really disciplined about truth telling.
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We endeavor to privilege the voices of BIPOC peoples and in all that we are doing. And the next principle of
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love and care has been so, so important in the work, especially because we started this work in our
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office about a year and a half ago. So it was still really in the midst of a very, very difficult
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time in relation to the pandemic. Certainly, we were very tired, our team members were really tired.
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And we realized that we were inviting people and asking people to do this very hard, hard work.
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And so it's necessary to wrap ourselves and one another in love and care. And so that's really,
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really important to us. And we represent that with this quilt that you see on the screen right now,
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which was a quilt that was made by Kate's late mom, Jen Gate for her. And so we use that as a symbol
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to remind us that we wrap ourselves and wrap one another in love and care. We endeavor to be very
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humble in this work. So we certainly aren't here today, thinking of ourselves as experts in this area,
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we are infants and babies. And we have so much to learn. And that's why we have open hearts and open
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minds. We have a willingness to own and attempt to fix harms that are identified. Sometimes the harms we
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identify are way above our pay grade. And so we, we do do our best to shine a light. And then when we
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see things that need to be corrected, we do our best to do that. We err on the side of Indigenous rights.
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And this has been a really, really helpful, helpful principle. What we've discovered in paying closer
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attention to the dynamics of white supremacy and anti Indigenous racism is that they can be quite
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gas lighty is a word that has come into our lexicon. So we find that there are situations where our
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harm alarms go off. And it's not, you know, directly on the surface clear to us, if in fact, this is
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white supremacy or racism. And so what we have begun to do is to reflect on whatever it is that we're
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looking at. Is it a policy? Is it an email? Is it a conversation that happened in a meeting? And we
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choose our next step and our, our path or course to take based on erring on the side of on the side of
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Indigenous rights. And that's been super helpful to us. We really want to share the lessons that we're
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learning and learn from others. So that's why we're so grateful to have the invitation to come today.
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And we are committed to doing our homework, which for us means really connecting with and understanding
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foundational commitments that we've been given, and that we hold in relation to Indigenous rights
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holders, and making sure that we know what Indigenous peoples have already told us to do,
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and that we're doing it. And we'll tell you a little bit more about that in a little bit.
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Another way that we anchor ourselves in our guiding principles is by looking and remembering this
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image, this piece of art that was created by Lisa Boivin, a DNA bioethicist. So this,
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this piece of art is called Sharing Bioethics, and it was published in the Canadian Medical Association
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Journal in September of 2018. And so it really embodies so many of the principles that were listed on the
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previous slide, including, you know, helping us see that the work before us is coming together in a
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good way, with, you know, differing worldviews and differing epistemologies and activating that ethical
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space of engagement together, and doing that with respect and love and care and humility. And what I
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really love about this image is that it reminds us, if we're coming to the work from a place on behalf
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of a settler organization, as I do in my role, or if we're coming from a biomedical model, that it's
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really important that we are vigilant about de-emphasizing our particular mainstream worldviews,
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because they are so dominant and, and oppressive. So we need to kind of keep them in check. But
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another thing that we've learned actually just recently is, we submitted an article for publication
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in a healthcare leadership journal, and we received feedback from the reviewers. And one of the reviewers
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described our article, which the article is a description of a piece of our work that Kate will
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be speaking to in a moment, the reviewer described our work as being hate filled, and representing hate
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against white settlers. And it was so distressing for us to receive that comment and feedback and to
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think that somebody was experiencing our work in that way. Because of course, we think about the work
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as being grounded in love and care. But it also reminded me and this image reminds me to recognize
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and to be very explicit that this is about different knowledges and wisdoms coming together. And that
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each of these, you know, or many all of the different worldviews that are at play, and I'm saying many,
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because I don't want to be pan indigenous in the way that I present this, but recognizing that there are
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multiple worldviews at play. And we all have gifts that we bring, including from the mainstream settler
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perspectives and biomedicine. And so this, we've included this slide today, just to have a moment to
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reflect on that and the ways in which white fragility can show up, and, and the way that we can respond by
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being really explicit about how we orient ourselves to the work. So I will pass it over to you, Kate.
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So as Danielle has said, we really rely on a number of metaphors, which help bring clarity
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to our glasses in this work. And so I'm going to share one here. And I just wanted to pause before I
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share it. I'm going to talk about a net in this metaphor, and the net is not a positive thing in this
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context. But I recognize that nets, and we'll talk about copper pots, all have different meanings
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across Turtle Island. And so this is not to say that there are not other ways in which nets can be
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helpful and useful. And so I just want to say that at the outset, with our metaphors, we're ascribing
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meaning to things that also have deeply held meaning within First Nations, Inuit and Métis cultures,
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and we're not trying to disrupt or co-opt that. So this is a piece of artwork that was
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in Vancouver during the TED conference in 2014. And I lived just around the corner and I went to visit it
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often. It's this huge net sculpture made by American artist Janet Echelman. It was 3,500 pounds, I read
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later and made up of 860,000 knots. And you can see it stretched over what we call the Burrard Inlet,
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over a Canada place attached to the buildings nearby. And so in this metaphor, we imagine
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these main lines that you see connected to the buildings as being those
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really foundational structures of settler colonialism in Canada, the reserve system, the Indian Act,
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the residential school system, those really big structures that have shaped and formed colonialism
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in Canada so intensely. But in this metaphor, we also recognize that the hundreds of thousands of
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knots that make up this net in finer detail are the policies and practices and processes that shape
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settler colonialism in much finer detail. And so in this metaphor, First Nations, Inuit and Métis people
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are caught in this net strung high above their traditional territories, which are foundations of laws and
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culture and governance and health and well being. And so we know that settler laws, imposition of settler
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laws has created a segregated system or a race based system or apartheid here in Canada. The Indian Act
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does not apply to me as a settler. And so settler Canadians are not trapped in this net. And from our
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vantage point on the seawall, or in the corporate buildings and hotels around Canada place, the
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vantage point or the way we would look at this net is different. And the nature of the net and the time
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of day makes the net look different depend on where you're looking at it from. So when I would go during
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the day, I almost couldn't see the net in the sky, like the clouds are coming through it, it's very
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ephemeral and hard to see. And then at night, there was a projection and it was lit up so vividly that
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you just couldn't take your eyes away from this artwork. And for me, that was like, I thought it through and
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I thought, oh, this is like settler colonialism as well. Because I can walk by most days and not even
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notice it. But then some days, it's so vivid, like when the news breaks about nations who have done the
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work of bringing the stories of their mass graves on their traditional territories forward. Or for example,
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orange shirt day when everybody is wearing their vivid t shirts, I have this moment where it's
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this net of settler colonialism is lit up so brightly. And I turn my attention and we often hear this
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question, oh man, like, what can I do? But then the news cycle recedes, we leave the National Day for
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Truth and Reconciliation, and our attention turns back to our day to day lives.
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And so that's sort of a really important piece to think about that as settlers, we have this really strong
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responsibility to keep our eyes on the net and not let that sort of move away from our eyes and our viewpoint on
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days where it's not lit up so vividly. So this is also a really important part of the story as well.
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It's installation. And so you can see that there are regular everyday people here in their vests
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installing this net. The artist herself is not here, Janet Echelman or in the metaphor, Sir Johnny
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MacDonald and Duncan Campbell Scott and that crew of people who have been so instrumental in the
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structures of the structures of settler colonialism. And so I think it's really, really important to think
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about that as people just doing their everyday jobs that install and maintain this net over time.
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In this frame, you can also see two flags, the Canadian flag and the Union Jack representing this ongoing
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occupation of Coast Salish territory here. Even the soundtrack, if you were here at noon, every single day,
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they blast the first four notes of El Canada, again, representing this ongoing dominion of this
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unceded territory. And there's a little flyover Canada kiosk which helps us with this metaphor.
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Even further, we recognize that the net of settler colonialism stretches over the whole
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geography of what we term colonially as Canada affecting First Nations, Métis and Inuit people from coast to coast to coast.
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So the artist didn't set out to make this metaphor. We've talked to her and we've asked her permission to share it in this way.
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So we're really grateful for that. But she also inadvertently offered a comment on where we go from here.
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So the net is not solid. Indigenous resistance has ensured that there are many holes, despite attempts through history,
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to tighten the weave. And instead, what has happened is that settler colonialism has created a really precarious
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situation. And so we've heard and talked about at different times that just a straight cutting
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of those major lines would cause tremendous harm. And so instead, the way we are seeing our work
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for the time being, as the powers that be work on dismantling those big lines, is that
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each of us working in the settler health system, whether it be academic life or in the health
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system or in clinical work, we likely have one or more of these colonial knots within our sphere of
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influence. And so our task is to be able to identify the knots, the colonial knots within our sphere of
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influence, and begin to untie them with guidance from First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.
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And this is hard and patient work. And I go back to that guiding principle of everyday work that requires
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everyday attention to be able to consciously and constructively untie those colonial knots. And so that
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is the metaphor that we wanted to share. And you'll hear us over and over refer to colonial knots as
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become a really important shorthand for our work. Back over to you, Danielle.
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Thank you, Kate. So the next slide is a truth telling slide. And it is to describe
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with a little bit more detail what it is that we mean when we use the language of white supremacy,
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because we recognize that it's language that can create discomfort or does create discomfort for
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many, if not all people. And so we're sharing this painting that was created by Cree artist Kent
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Monkman. And this painting is called The Daddies. And it's a recreation of a Robert Harris painting
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called The Fathers of Confederation. So the original Robert Harris painting was commissioned by Ottawa
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to celebrate and honor the Charlottetown Conference, which was one of three conferences that ultimately
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led to the Confederacy of Canada. And the story that I understand is that when Kent Monkman saw the
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original painting, he was struck by an empty footstool in the foreground. And he saw it as an opportunity
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to shine a light on the fact that Indigenous peoples were excluded from that really pivotal moment in
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Canadian history. And he's done that very artfully, obviously, by occupying that space with this
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androgynous alter ego mischief eagle testicle who's sitting on the Hudson's Bay blanket in her Louboutins.
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And so it's really important to think about the truth of that moment and the fact that we were
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excluded because of epistemological differences and because of the widely held belief at the time
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that Western European ways of knowing and being were superior to that of Indigenous peoples. There was a
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prevailing ideology of white supremacy and really the truth that's displayed in this picture
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is that that prevailing ideology is really what forms the bedrock now of the structures and systems
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that govern our day-to-day lives. And it's, of course, affirming to think that there's nobody
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that's tuned in today and very few people that actually hold that as a personal belief today in 2023
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that non-Indigenous peoples are superior to Indigenous peoples. But when we look at our socially constructed lives and experiences,
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this belief has become and is so deeply embedded that it continues to manifest as these gross disparities
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in everything that we count, every indicator we look at, including the indicator of leadership.
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So Kate very diligently went through and sent herself this series of text messages
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using these emojis to represent the whiteness of leadership in Canada, in BC, and in our Ministry of Health.
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And so if we're thinking about this from a truth perspective, you know, these text messages can represent
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really one of two truths. One being that non-Indigenous peoples are superior to Indigenous peoples and
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people of colour and are more capable of holding these positions. But of course, we've just agreed that
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that's not something that we hold as personal beliefs in this present day. And so the second truth
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that can help us understand this is that these deeply embedded ideologies of white supremacy and racism
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that were the foundation of this country called Canada continue to confer unearned advantage
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on a narrow segment of the population and confer unearned disadvantage on Indigenous, Black,
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and people of colour. And so being subjected to Canadian colonial practices and policies is bad for
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Indigenous peoples' health and education. What I've presented here on the screen today are two graphs taken
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from the population health and wellness agenda. One is on life expectancy of status First Nations and
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other residents in BC and the other is on percentage of students who complete high school within eight
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years, disaggregated between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. And so pretty much on any downstream
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outcome or social determinant health of outcome you choose, Indigenous peoples bear worse. And it's really
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important when we look at this graph, I think, to think about a couple of things. One is that while we all
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agree that this is not okay, that we're striving for at the very least equity, Ibram X. Kendi reminds us
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that while we may think that this is unjust, we also at the same time see it as normal. We've normalized this.
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And so that when I read that, or perhaps I heard him say it on a podcast, it really struck me because
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when we prepare reports like these, this one we did in collaboration with the First Nations Health
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Authority, and I saw Lindsay Beck on the line. So Lindsay, a shout out because she was instrumental in
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this project as well. We generate hundreds of charts that we look at, and every so often the data gets put in
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incorrectly. And so we get a chart where these lines are inverted. And immediately in our guts,
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everybody around the table says, oh wait, no, this can't be right. There must be an error,
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because this graph seems to represent that Indigenous peoples are actually doing better
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than non-Indigenous peoples. And we know somewhere in our guts that that's not, that's not right.
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So I just wanted to pause and share that because that was a really profound teaching for me.
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And then the other thing that I think is really important that we stop and consider when we look
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at these graphs is to think about the way that we typically and conventionally report findings.
00:31:05.460
And on when we report findings, and especially in relation to Indigenous peoples, we often or almost
00:31:12.820
always are implicitly attributing risk to indigeneity. So we say things based on these types of data that
00:31:21.860
Indigenous students are less likely to complete high school than non-Indigenous students, or First Nations
00:31:28.500
people have a shorter life expectancy than other residents. But if we think about it from the principles
00:31:35.460
of epidemiology, the study of disease patterns and trying to identify risks of different exposures,
00:31:43.940
if we think of a different topic, we say things like the risk of dying from lung cancer is up to 25 times
00:31:50.980
greater among smokers than people who never smoked. And it's really clear in that statement that the
00:31:57.780
exposure that's deemed a risk is smoking. But when we state outcomes of Indigenous peoples,
00:32:06.100
in that same way, we start to conflate Indigenous identity, Indigeneity with risk.
00:32:13.380
And it's the opposite. Our Indigenous identities, who we are and where we come from, that gives us
00:32:22.660
strength and resilience. Those are protective factors. The exposure that confers risk on us is the
00:32:29.620
socially constructed reality and experience of being subjected to Canadian colonial practices and
00:32:36.420
policies. And so this really brings us to the work that we've been doing in the OPHO over the last year
00:32:44.820
and a half to begin to arrest white supremacy and racism, and our efforts to center and act upon
00:32:53.860
the foundational commitments that we hold to Indigenous rights holders. So I will pass it back to you, Kate.
00:33:00.740
Thank you, Danielle. And so when we think about where do we go forward from these truths in our work, and I
00:33:13.700
shared in the beginning that I understand that I have obligations and responsibilities in relation to
00:33:22.980
Indigenous inherent rights. And I also talked about colonial knots and that we have a responsibility as
00:33:32.260
people working in the settler health system to untie the knots within our sphere of influence.
00:33:38.260
And we often find that the immediate thing to do is to go out and ask how we would do that.
00:33:47.780
But we recognize that we have been given very clear instructions about what to do.
00:33:56.580
So we understand also that sometimes this work is framed as benevolence or a moral obligation.
00:34:06.260
But actually, it's a legal obligation and an obligation under international and provincial law.
00:34:16.980
So we have these obligations. We're all treaty people. Our Constitution talks about these responsibilities.
00:34:25.140
Now in our province, we have UN Declaration law, and we have stated commitments by our governments as well.
00:34:33.620
We've also got a very clear framework of this work. The TRC process let us know that the UN Declaration
00:34:44.580
is the framework for reconciliation. And in addition, we've also received nearly 1000
00:34:53.540
very specific instructions of how to do this work. And so, as I move through these why, what and how.
00:35:03.140
I'm conscious of the fact that all the work that has been done to provide these obligations,
00:35:13.540
framework and instructions has been done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, and has been resisted at
00:35:21.700
every step by Canadian governments. So one example is that Canada chose to resist the signing of the UN
00:35:35.140
UN Declaration on the rights of the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
00:35:39.300
There was, yeah, there's a whole history of that, that has taken place of that resistance to Indigenous work.
00:35:48.900
So then, I see now that our work as the settler health system is in this orange bucket, and this is where
00:35:57.620
we are trying to do our work in the Office of the Provincial Health Officer.
00:36:01.620
So in that, it's to do the implementation of these obligations, framework and instructions. So asking,
00:36:09.620
in my sphere of influence, how are we upholding or undermining these commitments? How will we
00:36:15.940
hardwire in accountability and action? And are we holding space for this work? And if not, how will we hold
00:36:24.340
this space moving forward? Thank you, Kate. This slide, I'm particularly excited about because this
00:36:39.540
insight that came about through doing this work together has been so profoundly helpful and relieving
00:36:47.700
for me as somebody who's been working in health and working with a vision of being a part of advancing
00:36:59.700
the health and wellness of Indigenous peoples for 20 years. Being able to understand what work and whose
00:37:07.940
work has been revelatory for me. And so basically, just to share kind of a personal,
00:37:17.380
the personal take on it, for quite some time, I've had these harm alarms ringing when we talk about
00:37:25.380
Indigenous health and Indigenous health programs and were, you know, kind of put off to the side as
00:37:33.140
kind of this other thing that's doing. And I hadn't quite figured out why it was that I was resistant to
00:37:38.740
that language, why it didn't sit particularly well. It's in my job title, and it gives me a little bit of
00:37:44.740
that harm alarm. And so through our many conversations and doing this work, we came to this realization that
00:37:53.220
in this shared effort and on this journey towards truth and reconciliation, there are in fact a couple
00:38:01.300
of different buckets of work, and they are interconnected. And so, and we've represented them
00:38:09.940
here with a cedar basket and a copper pot. So I'm going to talk to you a little bit about the cedar basket
00:38:15.780
pieces of work, and then pass it over to Kate to speak to the copper pot. But essentially,
00:38:21.860
it was this realization that as First Nations, Métis and Inuit people, and as settlers, we both have
00:38:30.020
important, heavy lifting work to do, but it's a different type of work. And we can't, one cannot do
00:38:38.580
the other. So the basket that you see on the slide was made by Gail Blaney, who's from the Tla'Aman
00:38:48.820
nation. And she has given us permission to share the image of her basket in this way. And we're using it to
00:38:56.580
represent the work of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people in relation to reconciliation. And
00:39:02.820
essentially, it is about cultural continuity and maintaining our indigeneity. And so it's about
00:39:12.340
revitalizing and reclaiming our languages, our stewardship responsibilities to our lands, our cultural
00:39:21.860
ceremonies and practices, all of the things that were violently have been violently taken away from
00:39:28.500
us, and attempted to be. Oh, I've got a friend who uses the term genocided, which I which I kind of
00:39:37.780
like. And so that is, is our work in relation to reconciliation. And it's important work, it's hard work.
00:39:45.700
And so it's not to be conflated with the work of settlers and settler systems organizations, which we
00:39:54.020
represent here with the Copper Pot, and I'll pass it over to Kate to talk a little bit more about that.
00:39:58.980
Kate- As I'm just going to add to that, Danielle, because I'm learning how to understand that basket work.
00:40:13.220
And so I understand that one of the things that happens to Indigenous people working in mainstream
00:40:20.580
health systems, often with a title of a Department of Indigenous Health or Indigenous in the title,
00:40:29.220
is that in addition to that sacred work of basket that we're representing here with the basket that has
00:40:37.940
been here on these territories since time immemorial. Indigenous people are often also asked to do the work of
00:40:48.660
cultural safety and anti-racism work within that portfolio. And what happens then is that their energy
00:41:00.260
and resources are taken away from the basket work. And in that way, settlers and settler systems are again
00:41:13.780
centered. And also, as settlers, we are shirking our responsibility to dismantle the systems of harm that
00:41:23.460
we have imposed and created here. And so as we started to talk through this, I started to see my work and my
00:41:32.500
responsibility in relation to cultural safety, cultural humility, anti-white supremacy and anti-Indigenous
00:41:41.060
specific racism as represented in its own bucket. And I took a picture of this copper pot that my dad
00:41:50.820
brought to Canada recently from Holland, it was made in my grandpa's machine shop. And it represents,
00:42:02.820
for me, sort of a set of worldviews that's very new here in Canada. They're not the worldviews and
00:42:11.300
perspectives that have been here for thousands of years. And I also pause because I heard from a good
00:42:18.900
friend of mine about the copper pots in the work of water keepers in Anishinaabe territory. So I want to
00:42:31.540
recognize that there is copper pot basket work too. But I do want to say we are representing this idea of
00:42:41.220
settler work in guidance, with guidance from First Nations, Métis and Inuit people as copper pot work.
00:42:55.460
May I just add one other thought? Thank you. Yeah, because I think that that's so helpful and that
00:43:01.060
does help clarify for me or bring some clarity that the harm alarm around the Indigenous health is that
00:43:08.340
it does, it leaves settlers out of that problem solving and implementing work because we are just
00:43:16.740
centering Indigenous peoples. And I think I also want to honour that I saw my friend, my very close
00:43:23.780
friend, Leah Walker, in the circle today. And she has reminded us as well that while these are distinct
00:43:32.420
buckets of work, we do absolutely have to do them together that we are, you know, we're working in
00:43:38.100
this together. So we don't want to kind of give the impression that we're saying that these are things
00:43:43.300
that, you know, that that we are, again, kind of separated, we are doing the work together.
00:43:49.300
Okay, I'll take a moment to get back to move to the next slide.
00:43:56.500
So in terms of how we're thinking through our copper pot work at the OPHO, we've called on
00:44:04.020
the inimitable Dr. Kamara Jones, she's the former president of the American Public Health Association.
00:44:12.900
And while she was in that role, she launched a campaign against racism. And she offered us
00:44:20.820
three tasks that every health organization should move through. And those tasks are first to name racism
00:44:28.820
and white supremacy, ask how they're operating in our sphere of influence, and then organizing and
00:44:35.140
strategizing to act. And this is a framework that we're using to move through over and over again,
00:44:42.420
as we undertake this work in the OPHO. And I'm also very glad Jodi Wilson-Raybould
00:44:51.380
has just shared her true reconciliation book, the latest book, and she uses the three tasks of learn,
00:45:01.700
understand and act, which really maps onto these three tasks as well. And so what we're thinking
00:45:09.940
is that we're receiving this guidance very clear from public health experts, and also from BC First
00:45:17.780
Nations people, that those are three tasks that are really valuable to this work.
00:45:26.740
So where are we trying to go in the short term, we are doing a two year project, we're at a year and a
00:45:33.780
half in. Obviously, this is the work of us as a generation of health leaders. But our goals at the
00:45:42.900
outset of the unlearning and doing project in the OPHO were to be able to see the net and our
00:45:49.700
relationship to the net, to know which knots existed in our sphere exists within our sphere of influence,
00:45:56.900
both as individuals and as a collective at work, and to understand the path forward that's been
00:46:03.060
identified by Indigenous peoples, those foundational commitments, and to know which foundational
00:46:09.540
commitments and those specific instructions that fall within our responsibility as a unit, as a team,
00:46:16.740
and as an individual. And then to create these ongoing processes to identify knots, to activate a
00:46:24.500
culturally safe response to untie a knot when one is identified, and to assess new actions to make sure
00:46:30.820
they're not creating new knots. And Danielle, I don't know, I hope that it's okay that I share this, but like
00:46:36.260
when I first came into the office, I did witness the process that was in place was that
00:46:46.420
Danielle was the only Indigenous person working in our office at that time. And so she was responsible
00:46:53.860
for putting that lens, those glasses, to any documents or materials that were coming through her desk.
00:47:03.140
And that when a colonial knot, like Danielle, I understand that your harm alarms would go off,
00:47:11.860
because that responsibility was on you to sort of identify colonial knots and move forward.
00:47:19.300
And so now where we're at is that people in the office, we all understand that we all have responsibility
00:47:27.300
to identify colonial knots, and that we do as much work as we can, we do as much homework as we can,
00:47:36.020
before it arrives on Danielle's desk, or any of our other Indigenous colleagues' desks,
00:47:41.460
to reduce those instances of harm alarms. So I think I'm passing back to you, or do I still?
00:47:51.620
I think it's going to go to you, actually, for the next one. But I just wanted to say, because that's been
00:47:59.060
so huge. It's been incredible to feel that level of support and that we are actually all as a team
00:48:09.540
turning our attention to this work. And I work as a functional medicine doctor. A little part of my work
00:48:18.500
is around that. And it's amazing to me when you start working with somebody to deal with the root
00:48:24.660
causes of their illness or whatever they're dealing with, that when you start dealing with the root
00:48:30.340
causes, so many people, you know, get better. And they had like an initial complaint or thing that
00:48:36.900
was really bothering them, but they start to get better, better. And then they say, wow, I had no idea
00:48:42.340
that I was actually feeling that bad. Like I, you know, you just kind of, they had gotten used to that
00:48:48.660
baseline. And so for me over, especially over the last six months where this is really kind of
00:48:54.660
permeated the whole team. It's been, it's been so uplifting. And I didn't realize, actually, that
00:49:03.940
how heavy that load was until, you know, I get to sit in meetings now, or I get to review documents
00:49:11.140
where my teammates have been the ones to see the colonial knot. And they've been the ones to say the
00:49:16.580
hard thing. And they've been the one to, you know, look through the foundational commitments and pull
00:49:21.300
out the different specific direction that relates whether it's a call to action or from the DRIPA
00:49:27.460
action plan here in BC. And it has just like really filled my heart, and just contributed to my own
00:49:36.420
sense of balance and resilience in the work. So I'm glad that you brought that up, Kate, because it's been, I've
00:49:43.060
had lots of heart warms, rather than harm alarms, heart warms. Okay, so I'll move it forward for you, Kate here.
00:49:52.180
So one of the first tasks that we did was we wanted to see where we were at as an office in relation to
00:50:02.100
the foundational commitments to Indigenous peoples that I shared earlier. And so we did a benchmarking
00:50:07.940
activity in June 2022. And these pies talk are about sort of engagement with foundational commitments.
00:50:16.580
So people could be not aware, heard of it, read it, engaged with it, or taken action in OPHO work.
00:50:24.740
And the place that we're trying to go is if these, each of these pies was the darkest color.
00:50:31.300
And that's sort of where we're aiming to go. And so you can see here that in this initial check in with
00:50:44.020
us as a collective, we were had variable knowledge and variable awareness of the existing instructions
00:50:52.980
that we've received here in BC. And we also, at the same time, ask people to reflect on what supports
00:51:01.780
them to engage with foundational commitments, what hinders them from engaging with foundational
00:51:08.980
commitments, and what do they need that they don't have already. And so I'll pass it over to you,
00:51:15.620
Danielle, to talk about what people told us. Yes. So we came up with this handful of pragmatic findings
00:51:25.140
to arrest white supremacy and Indigenous specific racism in our office. And in the palm, two key
00:51:33.620
takeaways for us is that starting conversations with our grounding principles brings a sacredness to the
00:51:40.660
work that helps us move forward when the work is hard or heavy, or we're not quite sure on which
00:51:47.940
direction to go next when we're feeling stuck. Going back to those grounding principles always lights
00:51:53.860
away for us. Also that starting conversations with the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples shifts the tone
00:52:03.300
and really illuminates our obligations. And so we've been quite disciplined in that. Colonial knots abound.
00:52:13.620
They're everywhere. When you start looking for them, they show up everywhere. As Kate just mentioned,
00:52:20.660
there is a variable knowledge across our across our team in relation to foundational commitments.
00:52:27.700
Enabling leadership has been such a critical piece to being able to do this work. And it just happened
00:52:35.780
to land on the middle finger. It was not intentional. But we think that's quite funny. Dr. Henry has been so
00:52:45.140
supportive. And what has really enabled people to get on board and lean into this work is that she has been so
00:52:54.660
vocal in the office outside of the office and giving really clear direction to the team that this work
00:53:03.940
is priority. This work is really important. And so I need you as the leader of this team to pick up this work.
00:53:12.340
And because we are grounded in love and care, that doesn't mean that I'm asking you to pick up this work
00:53:18.740
and add it to the mountain of work that you are already doing. It means that I'm asking you to pick
00:53:24.260
up this work. And I understand that means you've got to put another piece of work down for now. And that
00:53:29.780
means that our deadlines and our timelines are going to get delayed. And so she has really had our backs in
00:53:38.740
that and really, really helped change the culture of the office and also just positioning this work as
00:53:47.060
so important. Operational support has been a key factor. So having Kate with us full time is something
00:53:56.500
that the staff and team members have really, really appreciated. We recognize that there's like the
00:54:02.980
importance of this sort of basket and copper pot and having this duo of leadership of Kate and myself
00:54:10.340
has been really, really important. And many of our settler team members have commented how it's been
00:54:17.380
helpful to them to have Kate, who's a settler, a white occupier, who's, you know, perhaps farther
00:54:23.540
along in her journey towards reconciliation that they can connect with and ask questions that they may not
00:54:29.140
feel comfortable bringing to me. And then the last finding is that there is this high, high level of
00:54:36.420
commitment across our team to making things right and contributing to truth and reconciliation and
00:54:44.100
upholding those foundational commitments. And people are asking for clear guidance. What does that mean
00:54:50.500
for me at my desk in my role in the activities that I carry out on a daily basis? And so
00:54:57.780
yesterday we just had this epiphany as we move forward in this work and we're getting to this
00:55:05.540
place of undertaking a policy and process review that we're going to start. We started many clubs over
00:55:12.180
the last year and a half, Unlearning Club and Not Cruise. And our latest club that we're just starting
00:55:18.340
is the Inky Pinky Club. So it's going to be the Inky Pinky Clear Guidance Club. So reps from different
00:55:26.020
parts of our office will come together to figure out how to write down and how to look at our written
00:55:31.380
documents and write them in anti-racist ways that uphold Indigenous self-determination and
00:55:38.260
inherent rights. So those are some of the findings. One of the pieces that was also has been very helpful
00:55:44.180
to us is to clarify our vision and what it is that we believe and that we're working towards. So
00:55:51.940
we recognize the inherent rights and title of BC First Nations and the inherent rights of all First
00:55:58.820
Nations, Métis and Inuit people now living in BC. We acknowledge that these rights can only be fully
00:56:06.660
exercised when the ecosystems in which they are embedded are vibrant, biodiverse and loved and cared for.
00:56:15.700
And so we share a collective responsibility to the health and wellness of these territories.
00:56:21.460
And we actively work to uphold the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples by taking actions on specific
00:56:27.540
foundational commitments made to Indigenous peoples, for example UNDRIP, TRC, Missing and Murdered Indigenous
00:56:34.820
Women and Girls and In Plain Sight, being trustworthy in relationships with Indigenous partners,
00:56:41.300
and taking anti-racist actions in all aspects of our work. So we will give you a snapshot
00:56:50.340
of the tools that we're using. So there's many, many different activities and tools that we're,
00:56:56.500
that we've undertaken in these different domains. And we've got a whole other slide deck that goes into
00:57:05.460
more detail at the tail end of this. But rather than keep talking at you, we just want to give you
00:57:14.500
this to kind of have a snapshot of some of the things that we're doing for folks that might want to ask
00:57:20.580
about that in the Q&A if there's a specific thing that you're interested in. We're really, really
00:57:27.380
particularly proud I think of number nine Indigenous recruitment and retention because as Kate mentioned
00:57:34.820
for many, many years, I was the only Indigenous team member at the office of the PHO and before me
00:57:42.020
that was Dr. Adams. So for several decades, this office has been exceptionally effective at keeping
00:57:49.780
Indigenous peoples out just by, you know, conducting or doing things in that status quo sort of way. So
00:57:57.540
we've been quite assertive and aggressive in terms of disrupting or dismantling the status quo there.
00:58:05.940
So you've seen this and I just want to quickly come back to our guiding principles and draw out
00:58:11.940
love and care and doing our homework as we think of a couple of calls to action as we close
00:58:18.740
today. So what is one act of love and care that you can take for yourself later today?
00:58:27.940
Whatever that might be for you, we invite you to just take a moment and think about that,
00:58:33.780
recognizing that this has been, again, hard, hard work that we're all doing together
00:58:39.940
and that that will help prepare you and give you the strength and resilience that you might need
00:58:45.540
for the next call to action, which is we're inviting everybody in the next week to identify
00:58:51.540
one thing that you can commit to doing as in terms of doing your homework to unlearn and undo
00:58:58.260
white supremacy in your sphere of influence. And so that might be going to one of those
00:59:05.140
foundational commitment documents and really having a look through to pull out the ones that are
00:59:10.100
relevant to your particular area of work. So, Kate, I'll just pause for a moment to see if there's
00:59:17.620
anything else that you wanted to say before we close and pass it back to Sarane to moderate a conversation.
00:59:29.460
Thank you, Danielle. I have no further comments, Your Honour.
00:59:35.460
Perfect. So, with Sarane's permission, I will stop sharing and then I will reshare again if people
00:59:46.820
have like more specific questions about the tools and we can use that as a backup.
00:59:54.980
Thank you so much, Danielle. I don't know if I actually can share again.
00:59:59.060
It might be beyond my technological ability, but... That sounds good. We have quite a few questions
01:00:05.380
here. I'll start with the first one. First one is, how is racism, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism
01:00:16.580
are interrelated? How can we dismantle these systems of oppression effectively?
01:00:29.140
One colonial knot at a time is sort of the way that we've been working towards it and approaching it. And I
01:00:39.060
think that's an excellent comment. I agree that all of those systems of oppression are linked and, you know,
01:00:48.660
provide fuel to the fire of the one that's sitting next to it. I think what we've found in the work is
01:00:56.260
that by working together to see colonial knots and then beginning to untie them is that it really does,
01:01:04.420
you begin to see how that colonial knot is connected to the one next to it. And it really becomes an exercise
01:01:11.940
in truth-telling and examining why are the systems and structures the way that they are.
01:01:20.180
And so you kind of start to see how all of those things are connected. And I would say that I mentioned
01:01:26.740
how heartwarming it's been to have this like transformation in terms of the way that my teammates
01:01:33.780
are working in relation to this, these pieces of work, it's been so, so profoundly different. And I would
01:01:44.420
also say that it's been, I think, one of the reasons that people have engaged in this way is because by
01:01:54.100
doing it one colonial knot at a time, you feel empowered. You all of a sudden feel like you do have
01:02:01.460
agency and you are implicated and you can start to see how you are, you know, enabling these different
01:02:09.140
systems of oppression, even when you think that you're not, or you can't imagine that you are.
01:02:14.740
I did see one question or comment in the chat about, you know, being somebody who's come from away,
01:02:21.300
being a newcomer or an immigrant and feeling like you're not sure how to relate to this because you're
01:02:26.820
not a part of colonialism. And yet, we all are, regardless of who we are, where we come from,
01:02:35.220
by virtue of participating in day to day Canadian society, life and norms and construction, we,
01:02:45.140
we all participate in this. And it just happens to be, as I mentioned earlier, very gaslighting,
01:02:51.380
we don't see it. So I think that has been one of the really powerful,
01:02:56.820
tools and ways that that net metaphor has helped us is by making it feasible to untie one colonial
01:03:05.060
knot at a time. And then you start to see the web and the net more clearly. The other comment that
01:03:11.140
we've heard is that the net metaphor can be very helpful because one, again, it helps you to feel
01:03:17.380
empowered and see how you can contribute, but it also brings people together. So we're not saying,
01:03:23.540
oh, you're a bad person, because you, you know, are somebody who upholds this policy, we're saying,
01:03:31.300
oh, there's like this policy is riddled with colonial knots, like, let's come together and work on untying
01:03:37.220
them together. So it does seem to at least in our team, have navigated some of that defensiveness,
01:03:44.980
which is really natural, right, when you're, when you're talking about this, this topic. Kate,
01:03:54.900
Yeah, I think you've really captured it when you talked about how we are all
01:04:02.340
affected by, or sort of in this system of colonialism. And one part of our discussion
01:04:08.500
that came up a lot as we were beginning to work. So Danielle lives on Lekwungen territory,
01:04:13.140
and I live on Musqueam territory. I have a little piece of paper that says that I own
01:04:18.980
the townhouse that I live in. I pay taxes every year, and none of that money is going to Musqueam.
01:04:28.260
And so even in that simple way of like, accepting the fact that that paper means that I own my house,
01:04:39.540
and the fact that I don't pay any of my taxes to the First Nation government connected to this territory,
01:04:49.620
means that I am part of this system. And that's just like one way out of the like, those hundreds of
01:04:58.820
thousands of colonial knots, the ways that I'm involved. And so that was just sort of like a
01:05:06.180
concrete example of I think what you're talking about, Danielle. And so you've talked about how you
01:05:11.540
don't pay Lekwungen taxes. So even as a First Nations and Métis woman, there are ways in which
01:05:22.420
you're conferred some advantage and unearned disadvantage, like we're, we're in it, like
01:05:29.140
it's here, it's everywhere, it's in every nook and cranny, regardless of where we come from.
01:05:34.740
I'm a first generation immigrant, and I am absolutely part of it.
01:05:39.940
Yeah, I think, I think I'll just, I know there's other questions too, but I think it is about that,
01:05:45.940
that I am participating in the occupation of Lekwungen territories, even though I'm an Indigenous
01:05:51.860
person, I'm still participating in this occupation. And so finding ways to see that, I think, and then
01:05:58.260
participate in cash back and finding other avenues. And the City of Victoria has established a
01:06:05.060
reconciliation fund that property owners in the City of Victoria can contribute to while they're
01:06:12.180
paying their property taxes. So I think there's, those are all the ways, but I think the question
01:06:17.220
is right, like it's everywhere, and it's interconnected with all of those different systems. And so
01:06:22.420
it's about going back to Joe Gallagher's teaching of, you know, these are everyday problems that require
01:06:28.980
our everyday attention, and seeing them and being mindful about how we participate, and then how we
01:06:42.980
Thank you for answering that. And I, like I totally agree, like we are, as Indigenous people and non-Indigenous
01:06:48.980
people and people of colour and BIPOC uphold the system of colonial colonialism, and that's, to
01:06:58.900
dismantle it is having to dismantle other parts of the system. So thank you for answering that. And then
01:07:05.460
our next question is, can you, can people call your office to help navigate a person's experience with
01:07:14.580
healthcare system, like help navigate a pushy MHO who wants information?
01:07:22.820
Yes, if it's related to a medical health officer, so the way that things are structured in BC,
01:07:30.260
obviously there's like a whole complaints process if you're going for clinical care at a, you know,
01:07:36.740
so for clinical care for public health care, the local medical health officers work in health
01:07:43.700
authorities typically, and so they report both to their chief medical health officer in the health
01:07:49.780
authority, but then also have reporting responsibilities to Dr. Henry in the office of the PHO.
01:07:55.540
So those would be kind of the two avenues if you're experiencing difficulties would be to go
01:08:02.100
to sort of the chief medical health officer in the health authority, and you could also reach out to
01:08:08.260
us as well. And I'm sorry to hear that. That's, that sucks. But colonial, colonial knots abound.
01:08:16.020
We've got lots of work to do. And if, maybe just to let people know that, as part of that inky, pinky,
01:08:22.980
clear guidance club that's getting started, one of the pieces of work that Amber Louie, who is a Tanaha nurse,
01:08:32.180
that's working with us as an MPH student, has been working on is looking at the medical health officer
01:08:38.340
practice standard or standard of practice as one place that we can really start to bring our,
01:08:44.340
put on our glasses and really look for the ways in which it's not yet fully upholding Indigenous
01:08:51.300
rights and self-determination and foundational commitments. So that is a piece of work that we're,
01:08:59.060
Great. Thank you so much. So we have another question from a healthcare provider.
01:09:09.060
So the, they're seeking to work with patients to identify consistently impacts of systemic and
01:09:16.420
environmental factors impacting their health. Maybe we should incorporate as part of the social history,
01:09:23.140
the identifying factors of acting against and as a productive health. How has there been discussion?
01:09:30.180
Oh, sorry. Has there been any discussion around this topic?
01:09:36.100
It was long. And so I'm like scrolling back. Is it at the top? I might do better reading it.
01:09:47.060
Oh, okay. Sorry guys. Sometimes I will say to you that my husband was also messaging me
01:09:58.660
to see if I was free to talk. And I was like, no, I'm decidedly not free at this moment.
01:10:12.740
Yes. Yeah. Okay. So I, I, I understand the question a little bit better now, I think. So
01:10:18.580
I think actually what I would say in response to this is that the population health and wellness
01:10:25.300
agenda that we worked with first nations health authority on developing and the baseline report
01:10:31.540
came out in 2021 is probably a really, um, good resource to go and have a look at in that, um,
01:10:38.260
that was, um, or that agenda was really meant to be a departure from sort of typical population
01:10:46.260
and public health reporting and a first attempt to, uh, embody or bring to life that Lisa Boyvin
01:10:54.100
picture of, of multiple worldviews, um, kind of sharing their gifts on a given topic.
01:11:00.100
And so as it relates to your question about, um, risk factors and protective factors, um, that agenda
01:11:08.580
has a visualization of a, of an ecosystem and talks about roots of wellness and what are those
01:11:15.300
deepest roots of wellness? Um, and essentially we were asking ourselves, what do we as first nations
01:11:20.820
people need more of to restore our natural balance and health and wellness? And what do we need less
01:11:26.420
of what are the things that are getting in the way? And so this ecosystem emerged where these deepest
01:11:32.100
roots of wellness are the things that make us uniquely who we are as Denet, Naha, Tlingit, Simshan,
01:11:38.980
um, Nahiyo, Anishinaabe. It's, you know, our culture, our language, our lands, um, in the shallower soil,
01:11:46.180
there's these shallower roots of wellness, which are all of those mainstream settler systems that we need
01:11:51.860
to interact with in a good way. Um, they need to be free of racism and discrimination for us to get
01:11:57.700
our basic needs met, housing, education, healthcare, justice, uh, family unity. Um, and when those roots
01:12:05.140
of wellness are well nourished, then we thrive in mind, body, and spirit. And that's represented on top
01:12:10.580
of the soil with an intergenerational family that's out on the land harvesting foods and medicines.
01:12:15.860
So I think, um, that I absolutely think that there's, uh, a need, um, and it's not my thought,
01:12:22.900
uh, we've been told by, um, in that context by BC First Nations that our, um, what contributes to our
01:12:29.780
wellness as First Nations people is much broader in our understanding than it is in the typical
01:12:36.900
mainstream biomedical sense. So we do need to think about, um, our connection to our land, uh,
01:12:43.220
our, uh, you know, our languages, uh, are we, um, in balance with all of our relations? So,
01:12:49.780
um, I'm not sure if I'm directly answering the question, but I would, um, I guess I'm just giving
01:12:54.260
a shout out to that publication as, um, as something that, um, also has some helpful teachings,
01:13:00.100
I think, as we try and think more holistically about how do we advance, um, First Nations, specifically
01:13:06.740
health and wellness, because that was a First Nations report. Do you have thoughts, Kate?
01:13:13.220
Thank you for that. Um, so our next question is, could the framework for the work be shared as,
01:13:22.900
so we can apply or explore how to define our own organizational framework?
01:13:30.180
Yes. Yes, absolutely. So we can, we can certainly, um, share the slides from today, um, including that,
01:13:37.700
like, uh, bonus part two that we didn't actually speak to the slides, but has a little bit more
01:13:43.220
information there. So we'd be very happy to share that. Um, we're also in the process of developing
01:13:50.020
our own tab on the Office of the PHO website where we can house a number of these different, uh, resources.
01:13:57.940
And, um, we, we hope that we will be able to continue to work with that particular journal to, um, publish
01:14:04.980
the article that was in relation to that net metaphor of settler colonialism. Um, so yeah,
01:14:10.500
we absolutely want to make anything that we have shared or anything that we've been working on
01:14:15.700
available to people. We just haven't quite landed on the, the easiest way, but certainly sharing the
01:14:27.940
Um, our next question is, um, the province is planning to introduce an entity in anti-racism
01:14:34.500
legislation, um, complementing the first piece of anti-racism data act. What would you like to see
01:14:42.180
in the legislation to combat systemic racism in the healthcare sector?
01:14:48.420
Oh, that's a great, um, great question. Do you want to go ahead, Kate?
01:14:52.100
Yeah, I think this is such an important one. And, um, to go to what Danielle was talking about,
01:15:00.500
um, in terms of indigeneity as a risk factor, um, and not a risk factor, but, um,
01:15:08.100
the fact that settler colonialism is the risk factor, indigenous specific racism is the risk factor,
01:15:13.860
um, in the health disparities that we see. And so one of the things that we talk about, um,
01:15:20.420
um, is that it is important for us to collect, um, identity data, um, and that's sort of within the,
01:15:30.340
um, grandmother's teachings, um, document from the, uh, office of the human rights commissioner.
01:15:38.820
And so that's really important, but we think that there is need for, um, another layer where we can
01:15:46.820
actually begin to measure racism within, um, BC, uh, in a more systematic way across, um, different
01:16:00.580
domains. And I'm getting detailed in my brain, so that's why I'm slowing down. Um, but Dr. Kamara Jones,
01:16:07.220
um, she talks about, um, the mechanisms of, uh, racism being structures, policies, practices, norms,
01:16:14.820
and values. And so, um, I think about, uh, some of the work that has happened with the CEDAR project.
01:16:22.900
Um, Vicky, I know you're here, um, in terms of measuring racism that, uh, young indigenous people
01:16:29.620
who've used drugs, um, has shown sort of like the dynamics of racism in the
01:16:37.140
and how it shows up in people's lives and affects their health. So in my head, it's not enough just
01:16:42.660
to say, is this person, um, an indigenous person, um, uh, a black person or from a different sort of
01:16:52.180
race or ethnicity, but rather we also need to get better at actually, uh, documenting and measuring
01:16:59.540
racism so that we can see those patterns of colonial knots and, um, how they impact health
01:17:07.380
and get more targeted in our untying of those knots, um, where they are in the system. We recognize that
01:17:14.740
they're everywhere right now. Um, but I think that's really important. Um, and Lori Harding, I also,
01:17:21.380
uh, recognize your work in doing this as well. I saw that you're here. So thank you.
01:17:26.740
And I can just add, I think, um, what I would like to see, um, as a result of the work. So,
01:17:36.900
so regardless of kind of what legislative tool, how it shows up is, um, really establishing that
01:17:43.060
governance piece so that, um, black indigenous people of color are a part of the governance,
01:17:50.260
certainly. And that's the piece of work that's underway right now with the anti-racism data act and
01:17:54.980
and the steering committee for that is, you know, how do we establish the governance of those pieces,
01:18:01.300
um, which I think is like so critical. And then I think what, yeah, in terms of what's in the act,
01:18:07.380
it's exactly what Kate just said. It's sort of like the elements of, um, the tasks that Camara Jones
01:18:12.660
has set out for us is that, you know, that the act names racism, um, that it, uh, asks
01:18:19.700
everybody to really do that, um, hard internal facing work of like, how is it operating here?
01:18:28.980
Like asking, telling those truths of like, how is it operating here? And then obviously organizing
01:18:35.060
and strategizing to act, um, are so, uh, so important. And so those are the elements that I
01:18:41.780
hope the act would, um, you know, uh, create as, as the momentum, as, as the things, the activities
01:18:56.420
Thank you for that. And, um, our next question is, are you able to share more detail on the recruitment
01:19:02.260
and retention checklist on how this work is creating space for indigenous peoples to bring their whole
01:19:07.780
authentic selves into the office of the PHO? Yes. So I will qualify it and say, I'm not sure
01:19:17.140
that we are totally at the place where, um, where our indigenous teammates can bring their whole
01:19:23.220
authentic selves to the workplace. Like every time I'm not, I'm not sure that we're there yet. I will say
01:19:30.100
that when, um, Kate came on board to start this, um, work together, we had, um, we were at the place
01:19:37.060
where we were, um, exploring indigenous exclusive to indigenous exclusive postings. And I said to Kate
01:19:44.580
that my, my goal was, um, at a minimum that the teammates that joined us would not be harmed by,
01:19:53.540
uh, working in our office. So, um, I think that's sort of where we're at. So I just want to qualify
01:19:59.540
and, and, um, acknowledge that again, we're humble. We're not saying that we're experts and we're doing
01:20:04.740
this perfectly. This is like a very incremental process. Um, the reconciliation checklist is in
01:20:10.820
the slide deck. So if, um, that gets circulated, you'll see the elements that are in there. Um,
01:20:16.100
the things that really became so apparent to us, at least within the PSA, um, hiring structure
01:20:22.740
is that, um, most of the indigenous preference statements, or at least let me speak to our office.
01:20:30.500
So, um, in our office, when in plain sight came out, um, in November, 2020, one of the ways we
01:20:36.500
responded was by saying, okay, we need to address the fact that we have very few indigenous teammates.
01:20:42.900
So we put in place a few different things. We were going to include, um, the indigenous applicant
01:20:48.820
advisory service. We were going to include the indigenous preference statement, um, and, um, and
01:20:54.500
indigenous core competencies. When Kate came on, um, uh, a year later, um, and we still hadn't hired
01:21:01.540
any indigenous peoples, um, Kate did an audit. So she just counted like how many times were we doing
01:21:07.380
the things that we said that we do? Um, and that wasn't great. We hadn't kind of hit consistency
01:21:12.660
across the board and we weren't enacting the indigenous preference statement. And so then we
01:21:18.260
wanted to find out like, why aren't we using this? Why isn't it yielding, um, indigenous, uh, like
01:21:23.620
hiring of indigenous teammates. And it turns out that it's very disincentivized in the PSA structure
01:21:30.180
of doing things because, um, and, and our hiring managers were being discouraged from enacting it
01:21:35.700
because it could result in an unsuccessful, um, posting because you might, uh, narrow down to a couple
01:21:43.060
of candidates. They may not, uh, be successful through the last few stages of the hiring competition,
01:21:48.420
or they may take work elsewhere. And so that was a big risk from a hiring manager perspective. So
01:21:53.940
again, that's where Dr. Henry, our very favorite Dr. Henry said, um, I don't care. We're going to take
01:21:59.860
those risks. We're going to enact this preference. And if that means that our hiring gets delayed,
01:22:04.820
that means that our timelines get protracted and that's okay because this is so important. So that's a
01:22:10.500
a bit of how it played out is that we, through counting and actually going back and saying,
01:22:15.140
like, how are we doing? We were able to discover that actually many of the things we had in place
01:22:20.660
were very performative. One, we weren't doing them all the time and they were performative and we needed
01:22:25.300
a few other elements like that enabling leadership to actually transform that into a meaningful action.
01:22:31.940
So we now have, um, myself and three full-time indigenous teammates and we also have, um, three
01:22:38.340
indigenous students that are working with us. So it's made a big, um, big difference.
01:22:42.500
I know we're getting down to the end of the hour. Kate, did you have other things that you want to say?
01:22:48.980
Um, I think that, that asking how is it operating here is like one of the really big tools in that
01:22:55.140
moment. So that counting allowed us to see. And, um, I just also want to recognize then, um, our colleagues in
01:23:04.580
the office, the hiring managers got their elbows out because over and over and over they were told in
01:23:12.420
not by from within our office, but sort of they were, um, impeded from, uh, doing the direction that
01:23:20.020
they were being given, um, to uphold indigenous preference statement and that kind of thing. So
01:23:26.980
I just want to recognize the amount of work, the, like the discipline, the stamina that it takes,
01:23:35.300
um, to do these tasks. And that's why we, um, go back to Joe's, um, everyday, uh, action requiring
01:23:44.420
everyday attention. So it took 13 months from the moment where there was a decision to do an indigenous
01:23:51.700
exclusive hire till the moment our colleagues started work because of the bureaucracy, um, that,
01:23:58.980
uh, tried to uphold the status quo, um, and keep that person out. So, um, those, yeah, those little
01:24:06.980
elbows, our colleagues have their elbows out. I, I see them on this call and I just want to recognize them.
01:24:16.020
Definitely. And like hiring is definitely one of the things that we can do for reconciliation
01:24:20.660
is incorporating more indigenous peoples in leadership positions, which is great to hear
01:24:25.220
that we're having more, um, on the team. And then, um, we just have, sorry, uh, sorry, our last question
01:24:36.420
here is just wondering, um, during the beginning and the recognition regarding anti-Black racism as well
01:24:43.940
and how colonialism here is stolen people on stolen land, how do we best support dismantling these
01:24:50.420
specific yet deeply entwined racisms and colonial violences? And how do we work together and
01:24:56.820
recognize the intersectional experiences, especially of Afro-Indigenous people?
01:25:05.140
We don't know yet. Um, but we are like, again, open hearts, open minds, and that's a piece, um, kind of
01:25:13.780
extension of this work that we're really, um, looking forward to learning with others, um, who hold that
01:25:21.460
expertise, which we don't hold. And so I think as Kate was mentioning earlier, um, we are embarking on
01:25:28.820
the very earliest steps of measuring racism, including, um, bringing together, um, hosting a series of three
01:25:38.260
conversations with, um, leaders from, uh, many different groups and communities, uh, to be able
01:25:45.940
to understand that together. Because I would say that our work has really been done through the lens
01:25:51.860
of settler colonialism and has really focused on upholding the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples.
01:25:57.700
And we recognize, as you've mentioned in your comment about these intersectionalities and that while we,
01:26:02.980
um, experience, um, we all encounter white supremacy and racism in these interactions with
01:26:10.660
mainstream systems, um, they do impact us in different ways. And so we do need, uh, you know,
01:26:16.740
a very diverse, um, again, governance structure, uh, to be able to have those conversations and, and
01:26:24.260
understand how we do that work together. So, yeah, the short answer for me would be, um, we don't know
01:26:29.060
yet, but we have open hearts, open minds, very humble and eager to work with others. So please
01:26:34.180
reach out if that's an area of interest for you. And, um, yeah, because we were just getting started.
01:26:43.060
Great. Thank you so much. That was our last question. Um, I just wanted to say thank you
01:26:47.620
to all our guests and to everyone for joining us today. And thank you so much, Dr. Kay Youngblood and Dr.
01:26:54.660
Danielle Bain-Smith for the amazing discussion. It was great to learn about unlearning and, um,
01:27:01.380
incorporating ways to increase Indigenous health into your guys's, um, presentation. And just before
01:27:08.820
we end the webinar, we love to bring your attention to our upcoming webinars. Um, we have the Indigenous
01:27:17.140
health leadership, um, program on February 16th. And then Art Makes Tangible, The Pain Inside Our Bodies
01:27:25.940
with, uh, Sharifa Marsden. That's on February 28th. Um, all our webinars are free to sign up for on our
01:27:32.660
website at www.learningcircle.ubc.ca. And thank you everyone for letting us, for joining us today. And
01:27:40.500
we look forward to seeing everyone at our next learning circle. Lynn lived. Thank you. Awesome.