Maad’ookiing Mshkiki - Sharing Medicine
This project aimed to build on other community-led and allied initiatives that shared the goal of advancing access to quality and safe healthcare services for our communities and meeting the needs of those who are systemically marginalized at the beginning of the pandemic. Specifically, this project aimed to provide timely, accurate, trauma-informed, and culturally relevant information about medical concepts related to available COVID-19 vaccinations with the explicit aim of empowering informed consent and decision making of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples living in urban and related homelands.
The Centre for Wise Practices in Indigenous Health (GCWP-IH) in partnership with Indigenous Primary Health Care Council (IPHCC), Anishnawbe Health Toronto (AHT) and The University Health Network, Indigenous Health (UHN) and Shkaabe Makwa (CAMH), developed public-facing and community-centered informational resources/ tools (i.e., video blogs and infographics) tailored for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. Using a strength-based, relatable approach that resonates, this initiative provided accessible resources that recognize and respect Indigenous worldview(s), rooted in upholding principles and standards of Indigenous knowledge translation through oral storytelling; sharing traditional knowledge(s) and healing practices that can build immunity with western biomedical scientific information and acknowledging traumatic experiences in healthcare.
