Conference Highlights Indigenous-Led Solutions for Health Care Challenges

Indigenous peoples in Canada experience systemic discrimination that leads to a higher risk of contracting COVID-19, as well as a host of other health issues, says an expert in pediatrics and public health.

Dr. Anna Banerji, an associate professor of pediatrics at University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, says a three-day Indigenous Health Conference will focus on highlighting solutions for health care challenges facing Indigenous peoples.

The conference – which will be held virtually from December 3 to 5 – will include more than 700 people from across Canada.

It will feature sessions focusing on using Indigenous knowledge to promote child and youth health, and Indigenous land-based healing programs. There is also a session planned on Indigenous harm reduction.

“There is systemic discrimination and biases in the Canadian health care system, but we can mark the resiliency, strength and accomplishments of Indigenous peoples. This is a way to celebrate Indigenous peoples’ and our culture,” says Banerji, who is also an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and an infectious disease specialist.

The conference’s theme is Indigenous youth and suicide prevention.

At the conference, Banerji will speak about her late son Nathan Banerji-Kearney.

Nathan Banerji-Kearney was an Inuk child adopted from the Arctic when he was four months old. He died at the age of 14, in 2018.

“The conference is about building our future, and about how we need to build Indigenous youth as tomorrow’s leaders. They will be the key in the future to solving problems,” says Banerji.

The conference will have keynote presentations by Michèle Audette, a Commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, as well as by Juno award-winning Inuk singer and songwriter, Susan Aglukark.

The pandemic has created more health challenges for Indigenous Canadians, says Banerji.

Another keynote presentation at the conference features Dr. Carrie Bourassa, Scientific Director of Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health, who will address the pandemic.

“I think the risk COVID-19 poses to Indigenous peoples has been under-recognized. The pandemic has been happening for nine months, and I don’t think there’s been enough attention on how it’s impacted Indigenous communities,” says Banerji.

“We need many things to improve the health of Indigenous people – better housing, more rapid testing, and the recognition of systemic discrimination that exists in the Canadian health care system.”

Banerji says in remote, fly-in communities, accessing health care quickly can be difficult. 

“Because of everything that has happened, there is a mistrust of the way the Canadian government is going to handle this, with good reason,” she says.

“The way Indigenous communities have kept COVID-19 out is through lockdowns and restrictions, but this means diabetic nurses haven’t gone in, dentists haven’t gone in, there has been decreased mental health services. The collateral damage from COVID-19 has been huge.”