Anti-Indigenous Racism

Anti-Indigenous racism (AIR) is defined as the ongoing race-based discrimination, negative stereotyping, and injustice experienced by Indigenous peoples within Canada. It includes ideologies and practices that contribute to the establishment, maintenance, and perpetuation of power imbalances, structural obstacles, and inequitable results in Canada as a result of colonial policies and practices. Discriminatory government laws like the Indian Act and the residential school system demonstrate systemic anti-Indigenous racism. Individual lived-experiences of anti-Indigenous racism can be seen in prejudiced attitudes and acts of hostility directed at Indigenous people (Toronto Metropolitan University, 2022).

In this video, Cindy Blackstock, a renowned Indigenous child and family rights activist and the inaugural chancellor for NOSM University, explains the concept of systemic racism through discussing Jordan's Principle.

TVO Today Docs. (2019, April 4). How to change systemic racism in Canada [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/j-xAloD75dQ?si=_qAEKcWHdp4x88yU

Further Reading on Anti-Indigenous Racism, Health and Education

Resources

Treating Root Causes, Not Symptoms

National Collaborating Center for Indigenous Health – Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canada

Challenging Anti-Indigenous Racism in Health Care - Canadian Medical Society

Anti-Indigenous Racism Brief – The National Consortium For Indigenous Medical Education (NCIME)

Anti-Indigenous Racism FAQ – The National Consortium For Indigenous Medical Education (NCIME)

Anti-Indigenous Racism Training and Culturally Safe Learning: Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy

Addressing Anti-Indigenous racism in Canadian health systems: multi-tiered approaches are required

Action Towards Anti Racism, Indigenization, and Decolonization of Health Professions Education in Canada

Books

	Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s by Maureen K. Lux Separate Beds is the shocking story of Canada's system of segregated health care. Operated by the same bureaucracy that was expanding health care opportunities for most Canadians, the "Indian Hospitals" were underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded, and rife with coercion and medical experimentation.
	Medicine Unbundled: A Journey through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care by Gary Geddes Gary Geddes turned the investigative lens on his own country, embarking on a long and difficult journey across Canada to interview Indigenous elders willing to share their experiences of segregated health care, including their treatment in the "Indian hospitals" that existed from coast to coast for over half a century.
	Fighting for a Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism against Indigenous Children in Canada by Samir Shaheen-Hussain, Cindy Blackstock, et al. Launched by healthcare providers in January 2018, the #aHand2Hold campaign confronted the Quebec government's practice of separating children from their families during medical evacuation airlifts, which disproportionately affected remote and northern Indigenous communities.
	Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life by James Daschuk Ph.D, Elizabeth A. Fenn, et al. Revealing how Canada's first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada.
	Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City by Adele Perry and Mary Jane Logan McCallum Structures of Indifference examines an Indigenous life and death in a Canadian city and what it reveals about the ongoing history of colonialism.

Sources:

Toronto Metropolitan University. (2022). Key Concepts in Anti-Indigenous Racism. In Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Practice. Experiential Learning Hub, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/ediinpractice/chapter/key-concepts-in-anti-indigenous-racism/

Government of Canada. (2023, September 11). Anti-Racism Lexicon. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/systemic-racism-discrimination/anti-racism-toolkit/anti-racism-lexicon.html