What Justice Looks Like: Confronting Anti-Indigenous Racism and Building Safe and Comprehensive Mental Health & Addictions Systems for Indigenous Peoples

Together, FPWC and Thunderbird Partnership Foundation hosted 6 roundtables with 96 First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and non-Indigenous workers to hear about experiences of anti-Indigenous racism within mental health and addictions systems.

Anti-Indigenous racism in health care has been both a source of, and a reflection of colonial violence for decades. Recent events, such as the tragic deaths of Brian Sinclair and Joyce Echaquan, have brought this issue to the forefront, sparking public conversation and calling for systemic change.

By engaging with mental wellness workers from coast to coast to coast, we have gathered valuable insights and developed a set of recommendations to prevent and respond to racism within these systems. Our report is based on dialogue and input gathered from a series of roundtable discussions with 96 participants across 5 sessions, as well as a post-engagement survey. It focuses on recommendations for preventing and responding to anti-Indigenous racism in health care and reinforces the importance of supporting distinct Indigenous voices, values, and ways of being.