Office of Indigenous Medical Education Officially Opens

The Faculty of Medicine celebrated the establishment of the Office of Indigenous Medical Education with a reception and open house on February 3. The office was founded to attract and support Indigenous medical students, build partnerships and advance the understanding of Aboriginal health issues within the Faculty’s curricula. 

For second-year undergraduate medical student Marc Labelle, the office is not just a place for Indigenous students to come together. It is also a valuable source of support for continuing the many initiatives he and the Faculty’s other Indigenous students are involved with—including helping Aboriginal applicants, community outreach and engagement and organizing an Aboriginal health elective.

“There are so few of us, once we hit exams, all of our initiatives stop. It just helps from a critical-mass standpoint because we just don’t have the numbers to do everything we would like to do,” Labelle said.

That’s something the office is working to change.

“I hope to have many more Aboriginal students here, and also Aboriginal residents and faculty members,” said Dr. Lisa Richardson, one of the office’s two curricular co-leads.

Another goal is to help non-Indigenous students better understand how to deliver culturally safe care.

“We don’t have very many Aboriginal students in the program – we’re at six now, but we have many students who could one day be working with Aboriginal patients,” she said. “The idea is that, through this office, we’ll be teaching them, guiding them and helping to give them some skills and knowledge to work with Aboriginal patients.”

According to Cat Criger, an Elder whose role is to provide cultural support and teachings, students—both Indigenous and non-Indigenous—have been visiting the office to learn more about Aboriginal health issues.

“Knowledge is a wonderful thing,” he said. “When people have knowledge about us, it’s a much more welcoming place, both for our people, and for the people working with us.”