"They Seem to Want to Help Me": Health, Rights, and Indigenous Community Resurgence in Urban Indigenous Health Organizations
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: At least 52 percent of the Indigenous population of Canada lives in cities (Statistics Canada, 2017a), yet urban Indigenous experiences continue to be underrepresented in both research and policy (Place, 2012; K. Wilson Young, 2008). Health care policy in particular is jurisdictionally complex for Indigenous people living in urban areas, leading urban Indigenous people to have limited options for culturally safe health care. Indigenous people living in urban areas frequently report negative experiences in health care settings, often associated with discrimination based on Indigenous identity (Browne et al., 2011a; Evans, White, Berg, 2014). Indigenous-led health organizations are one way that urban Indigenous communities have developed of counteracting such difficulties. This dissertation uses qualitative methods, grounded in principles drawn from Indigenous and decolonizing research, to examine the everyday experiences of Indigenous clients in health care settings in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. Interviews and focus groups involving 50 Indigenous community members and 15 health services workers were conducted in 2015-2016. Intent on investigating the connections between urban Indigenous peoples’ inherent rights and Indigenous peoples’ experiences accessing health care, this research also draws on the growing body of literature on Indigenous community resurgence. It is guided by the following question: How does the work of Indigenous-led health organizations, in the context of settler colonialism, bring together Indigenous rights and Indigenous community resurgence for Indigenous community members in urban areas? Discussions about how to improve Indigenous people’s experiences in health care rarely touch on Indigenous rights, in spite of the fundamental importance of rights to self-government and self-determination to the health of Indigenous individuals and communities (Greenwood, de Leeuw, Lindsay, Reading, 2015). This study examines how discourses of rights, relationships, and resurgence come together in Indigenous-led health organizations.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Sarah E. Nelson
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2985967407