Indigenous health project using old ideas
By Christine Smith (McFarlane)
TORONTO – When Dr. Janet Smylie talks about doing things in a new way, she really means in an old way
The Metis family physician and research scientist says the premise behind the Well Living House in downtown Toronto is “an old idea, a common sense idea of putting Indigenous ways of knowing and doing back into the centre of health services, programs and policies.”
Dr. Smylie is the first director of Well Living House, a new research centre that will focus on Indigenous infant, child and family health and well-being. At its heart is an aspiration to be a place where Indigenous people can come together to gather, understand, link and share best knowledge about happy and healthy children, family and community living.
“People have been doing that for many decades but what is particularly innovative of this is that we have a big teaching hospital to partner with this council of grandparents to move in that direction, and in order for us to address health inequities for our people we need not only the best in health services research, we already have best practices in our own ways of knowing, but we need to include an integrated way, not just a beads and feathers superficial way.”
One current research project includes an Indigenous Knowledge Network for Infant, Child and Family Health, where ten front-line Aboriginal health workers have been asked to collect oral histories and apply traditional and public health knowledge to existing programs in Ontario and Saskatchewan. The five-year project, expected to be completed this fall, is governed by a steering committee with representation from network partners. The committee’s tasks include seeking direction and input on an ongoing basis from Elders and traditional resource people.
Other projects are Strengthening Health Literacy Among Indigenous People Living with Cardiovascular Disease and Our Health Counts: Urban Aboriginal Health Database Project.
The facility is housed at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health , part of St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto. A committee of Elders — the Council of Grandparents– has been struck to guide the establishment and operation of Well Living House, which will be accountable in its operations to Indigenous communities through the council, as well as to the hospital.
The centre is the result of almost two decades of collaborative work between Indigenous health researchers, front-line health practitioners and Indigenous community grandparents. Well Living House will aim to improve health policies, services and programs through knowledge work: conducting research, building knowledge networks and providing training for researchers and pursue community relationships and networks.
The new centre will advance Indigenous knowledge translation using tools such as social networks and digital media, respond to health inequities by looking at systematic barriers to care; traditional knowledge at the foundation of Aboriginal care and expand research capacities and infrastructure.
A recent fundraising event included a pre-release viewing of the 20-minute documentary “For Seven Generations: Visioning for a Toronto Aboriginal Birth Centre,” filmed by Rebeka Tabobondung, Wasauksing First Nation, and the unveiling of the mural “Honouring My Spirit Helpers-Baagitchigawag Manitou” by Christi Belcourt, a Metis visual artist.