Nov 24-25, 2016  |  5:30pm - 7:30pm

Annual Dr. Peggy Hill Memorial Lecture on Indigenous Health

Indigenous Knowledges: Healing and Aboriginal Homelessness

Given by Dr. Suzanne Stewart, Director Designate at the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health.

The event is sponsored by the Medical Alumni Association, in partnership with the Office of Indigenous Medical Education.

RSVP by November 21. 

Please join us for the 2016 annual Dr. Peggy Hill Memorial Lecture in Indigenous Health. Dr. Hill was the Physician in Chief of Medicine at Women's College for many years.The Medical Alumni Association, in partnership with the Office of Indigenous Medical Education, are hosting this event with hors d'oeuvres from 5:30-6pm, lecture from 6-7, and questions/discussion from 7-7:30. 

This year, we will be joined by Dr. Suzanne L. Stewart, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Homelessness and Life Transitions at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Yellowknife Dene First Nation. She is a registered psychologist and Associate Professor in indigenous healing in Clinical and Counseling Psychology at OISE/University of Toronto, where she is Special Advisor to the Dean on Aboriginal Education and Interim Director of the Indigenous Education Initiative. She is Director Designate of the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at U of T.

Dr. Stewart's lecture on Indigenous Knowledges: Healing Aboriginal Homelessness will be an enlightening discussion bringing us a step closer to understanding this issue and what has impacted current trends. 

Abstract: Indigenous Knowledges: Healing and Aboriginal Homelessness

Currently, Indigenous peoples in Canada comprise about 4% of the overall population; yet represent 20-50% of the homeless population in urban areas across the country. This over-representation in homelessness identifies a significant area of need in terms of mental health services, as homeless peoples are also identified as having high rates of mental health problems. In Canada, traditional Indigenous knowledges were used for health and healing by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. Since first contact with Europeans in the 1400s, the use of Indigenous knowledges in health care have been drastically reduced due to colonization and the cognitive imperialism of Western science. This qualitative study, in a large urban area, looked at how traditional Indigenous knowledges can help improve the mental health of Indigenous homeless clients, many of whom are youth and young families. For data sets, comprising 62 individual narrative interviews, were completed regarding the strengths and challenges faced by the homeless in accessing mental health service, including counselling and traditional healing/knowledges supports. Interview data and field notes were analyzed using narrative story maps as an Indigenous narrative methodology developed by the researcher (Stewart, 2008). Guidelines for the practice of mental health will be presented, and recommendations for local and national and policy changes regarding Indigenous knowledges and health.