Elder Myeengun Henry presents an eagle feather to Dean Lili Liu at the Faculty's Commitment Ceremony in June 2022
Aaniin! Hello!
The Faculty of Health is deeply committed to reconciliation and honours and respects Indigenous cultures and ways of knowing.
Before the Faculty’s 2020-25 Strategic Plan, Indigenous initiatives were promoted or organized by individual faculty and staff whose mission was to advocate for reconciliation. However, in the 2020-25 Strategic Plan, a signature commitment was made to create an environment that invites and respects Indigenous ways of knowing, bringing this commitment to an institutional level. This commitment includes seeking ways to encourage Indigeneity and ensuring Indigenous students are supported in their university experience. This new relationship of reconciliation was formalized in a Commitment Ceremony in June 2022.
Together, we are now building roads and beginning to do the work. Elder Myeengun Henry has joined to Faculty as Indigenous Knowledge Keeper to guide initiatives and knowledge building throughout the Faculty. The page below outlines opportunities to engage with Elder Henry, and the resources we are developing to strengthen and apply knowledge.
Faculty are working to include Indigenous knowledge into the curriculum to make a difference in how we practice and deliver health programs and services.
Indigenous students will have a gathering space to congregate, to celebrate, to smudge and to be proud of being an Indigenous student within the Faculty of Health.
Events such as learning circles and commemorating days of significance provide the opportunity for all to engage and continue building their knowledge.
For more information, contact Faculty of Health Indigenous Initiatives.
The key is education. Generations will learn and understand things they didn’t before. It’s how the shared vision of reconciliation will become reality and last beyond the Strategic Plan and beyond our time here.
In the spirit of reconciliation, the Faculty of Health Indigenous Knowledge Keeper guides the Faculty on systemic and systematic changes in response to, and beyond, the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. The Knowledge Keeper helps to build an understanding among students, staff and faculty about Indigenous ways of knowing as it relates to curriculum, services and administration. This work also involves creating a respectful and mutually supportive environment for First Nations, Metis and Inuit students, faculty and staff. The Faculty’s first Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, Elder Myeengun Henry, is giving shape to that process.
Learn more about Elder Myeengun Henry