The lasting impact of Residential Schools emphasizes the need to restore the trust within healthcare systems. We all share a responsibility in reconciliation, and one step towards that is culturally safe healthcare – wherein all Indigenous people are respected and are safe from discrimination.  

Indigenous Peoples continue to experience systemic discrimination due to un/conscious biases and stereotypes, barriers to receiving culturally safe care, and overall inadequate health care services. An important step towards reconciliation is acknowledgement, compassion and commitment to continuous learning. 

Culture is the essence of identity, belonging and history. It is the basis of traditions, customs, values, ceremonies, spirituality, language, ways of knowing and being and connections to the land. Losing one’s culture, or being removed from it, has contributed to a breakdown of health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is important that care is grounded in Culture as healing to better serve Indigenous patients.  

Traditional healing can be defined as a journey towards good health and well-being, which begins with the focus on oneself, and involves sustaining balance through awareness and self-acceptance. This balance can be achieved through integrating elements of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being contained within the Model of Wholistic Health and Well-being (MWHW).  

This model conceptualizes well-being as a balance across physical, spiritual, emotional and mental aspects of the self. Culture, that is Indigenous ways of knowing and being, lies at the centre of wholistic well-being, as it provides the means of re–establishing balance across all areas of the self. In practise, this looks like care that is not divided into separate silos for physical health, traditional healing, mental health, health, promotion, etc. Instead, services are provided by indigenous health centers, simultaneously address clients’, physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental needs.