A Summit is bringing together Indigenous leaders and health leaders beyond discussions, to new grounds that some say could transform the current health care system.
The NWT Council of Leaders and representatives from the GNWT are hosting the event, titled Following the North Star: Primary Health Care Reimagined Together.
The event brings together about 70 participants who are leaders in the healthcare sector, working in the Arctic and the SubArctic regions.
Organizers said that insights emerging from the Summit and an immersive exhibit will be mobilized to shape the Primary and Community Health Care Framework, to be released this spring.
Participants took part in an immersive cultural safety and anti-racism art exhibit on site, curated by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists and scholars from across the territory.
“We are gathered here today to look at how we can transform and make progress towards improved Indigenous health,” said Nina Larsson today at the event.
“How to create change or what is possible? What is needed to create change?” asks Larsson, inviting a response.
Larsson, a lead organizer and director of Community, Culture and Innovation, said the first day of the Summit is focused on relationships, truth and understanding.
For the leaders gathered who live and work in the Arctic and the territories, to change the “system” means doing things differently, emphasized Larsson.
“Volunteer participation part is to really model what we want the healthcare system to be if we think of the future of health, which is informed choice and informed consent,” explained Larsson.
“And we need to do this together with Indigenous governments. And so we’re modelling that this week by co-hosting the event, with Indigenous governments, with the Council of Leaders, the Health and Social Services working group.”
For the past year, the group has been engaging with communities across the territory to understand their vision of Indigenous health and wellness. Alongside that work, they also discussed and reviewed previously published reports.
Larsson said the second day of the Summit will focus on what is missing from the living document they are in the process of creating.
“The document that we’re presenting at this event is based on the voices of Indigenous clients, Indigenous employees and healthcare professionals,” said Larsson.
The work of the Summit is focused on building a culturally safe and inclusive space where participants work together and learn.
The goal is about building and maintaining a process of working with Indigenous leadership to improve access to care and services that are more culturally safe. It’s about beginning a path towards greater trust and a health system that better meets the needs of Indigenous and non Indigenous people in the territory.
“We can even just start with humility in this system and that includes saying – ‘I don’t know the answers community knows the answers, we can design a framework of how to do health, of how to bring people together to design health.’ But if we’re saying that they’re all going to be the same, that Łutsël Kʼé’s needs are going to be the same as Inuvik, then we’re just repeating the same challenges,” said Erika Doehring-Lafferty, a lead organizer and manager of Cultural Safety and Anti-Racism Learning Initiatives.
Summit organizers explained that to begin the work of healthcare transformation is done by building relationships and building spaces deeply informed by participatory, inclusive ways of seeing and being.
“We have the saying, ‘I think therefore I am,’ which is really a western way and that has us in our head as our way of reality. Whereas in the Maori they say ‘We belong and therefore we are’ and so it’s about relationship and it’s embodied,” said Doehring-Lafferty.
“It’s also a way that’s always been there and so we’re really excited to be able to explore throughout the Summit this week, what it can look like to be thinking with both feet planted – what the future of care can look like without having to be divided,” added Doehring-Lafferty.
In a statement released today, Health and Social Services Minister Lesa Semmler said that the process of transforming the healthcare system begins with listening.
“For me, the Summit is about coming together in a respectful way to listen, learn, and do better for the people we serve. Real change in health care happens when we work alongside Indigenous governments and communities, and when we take the time to hear what is working and what needs to change. The conversations we are having here will help shape care that feels safer, more connected, and closer to home for people across the Northwest Territories,” said Minister Semmler.
Ɂekw’ahtı̨d̨ǝ́ Danny Gaudet, who is Chair of the NWT Council of Leaders, said a primary health care system grounded in culture and traditions is one major step that makes space for Indigenous clients to receive culturally appropriate care.
“This Summit sets the stage for Indigenous governments in the NWT to partner with GNWT on reinventing primary health care so that our communities have access to services that are informed by Indigenous knowledge, grounded in culture and tradition, and delivered close to home,” said Ɂekw’ahtı̨d̨ǝ́ Danny Gaudet.
What is being envisioned is a healthcare model that is inclusive and participatory, rooted in Indigenous cultural practices that recognize health and wellness as holistic, connected to housing, education, language, the land and waters, along with the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous people it sustains in the wake of lessons learned.
Summit organizers released a statement identifying the gathering’s main objectives:
o Convene Indigenous leaders and health system experts to share lessons and wise practices.
o Create culturally safe, inclusive, trauma-informed space for learning and relationship building.
o Test and refine a plan forward to transform primary and community health care in the NWT, designed by and for Indigenous Peoples.
o Draw inspiration from promising models of care to inform improvements.
The Summit began today (Jan. 20) and will continue to Thursday (Jan. 22) at the Chateau Nova hotel in the city of Yellowknife.
