Truth to Action: Lived Experiences of Indigenous Healthcare Professionals Redressing Indigenous-Specific Racism

Study BackgroundThe experience of discrimination through stereotyping, profiling, and bias-informed care not only leads to poor access to healthcare services, but low retention rates of Indigenous health professionals (IHP). As health systems transformation evolves, a significant gap remains in supporting IHP to safely address racism, to be supported culturally to bring their authentic selves and voices to work, and to attend to one's own intellectual, physical, relational, cultural and spiritual wellness within a westernized model of care.PurposeThe aim of the study was to investigate the experiences of IHP working in mainstream healthcare in order to understand how their work environment impacts the delivery of cultural safe practices. What is reported in this manuscript, as an exercise in truth-telling, is findings about lived experiences of IHP working in one mainstream provincial healthcare region, and not the whole context and outcomes of the study.MethodsUsing Indigenous research methodologies, we embodied our Indigeneity into every facet of the research process. We facilitated three talking circles with participants grounded in a distinct cultural and ceremonial context following Secwepemc protocols.ResultsThe collective voices of IHP revealed the following common experiences: confronting genocide; addressing Indigenous-specific racism; uprooting toxicity and inequities; and upholding Indigenous human rights while enhancing accountability of systems transformation.ConclusionsThe experience of IHP working in health systems goes beyond mere individual employment obligations, its often about a families and communities advocacy for Indigenous rights, culturally safe working environments and access to dignified and respectful healthcare service. This study highlights the need for IHP to be actively involved in health system transformation to ensure the redesigning and restructuring of healthcare service delivery by and for Indigenous Peoples remains centered on Indigenous health and human rights.