The South Island Division supports safe, culturally appropriate health care that is free from racism and discrimination. The below list of resources has been curated by our community, for our members.

What is Cultural Safety?

Cultural safety means providing services in a way that shows respect for culture and identity, incorporates a person’s needs and rights, and is free of discrimination.

Indigenous cultural safety is often seen on a continuum that includes cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, and cultural competence and has the goal of creating equitable outcomes for Indigenous people in Canadian society.

Cultural safety is what is felt or experienced by a person receiving care when a health care provider communicates in a respectful, inclusive way, that empowers decision-making and builds a collaborative relationship. Cultural safety is determined by those receiving the care or service, rather than those who provide care or service. 

W̱SÁNEĆ Ethnobotany Trail

Located at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, this trail provides the opportunity to educate visitors in the W̱SÁNEĆ territory about the cultural and ecological importance of native plants and ecosystems. Take a self-guided tour through the Ethnobotany Trail to learn about the plant species and how each species can be healing to the body.

Indigenous Cultural Safety Training Opportunities

The interCultural Online Health Network (iCON) has partnered with Vancouver Coastal Health – Indigenous Health to develop Indigenous Health Rounds, which serve as a platform to bring Indigenous voices to health care providers, policy makers, and health administrators for knowledge sharing, dialogue, and brainstorming solutions to combat racism and foster culturally safe healthcare settings for Indigenous patients and families. Access the Indigenous Health Rounds online platform, which provides access to a variety of recorded sessions to support your cultural learning journey.

Participate in the online, self-guided and self-facilitated San’Yas Anti-Racism Indigenous Cultural Safety Training program, which focuses on topics such as colonization in Canada, racism, discrimination, stereotypig, and their impacts on Indigenous peoples, and how to take action to strengthen Indigenous Cultural Safety in relationships, practices, and services. If you have completed your San’Yas Anti-Racism Indigenous Cultural Safety Training and wish to enhance your skills in speaking out and advocating for social justice for Indigenous Peoples, the Bystander to Ally: Allyship in Action program encourages self-reflection and teaches practical skills that can help people become more effective allies. This advanced course is accredited through the College of Family Physicians of Canada and has been certified for up to 10 Mainpro+ credits.

The Indigenous Cultural Safety Learning Serires, presented by Doctors of BC and Harley Eagle, is a virtual five-part series presented to family physicians across BC. Access online resources and watch the video sessions here, with topics such as:

• Setting the tone and building trust
• Hearing our history and stories
• Digging for the root and connecting dots
• Finding a new way forward together
• Tying it all together and continued support

Articles, Reports, and Books

• Cooking in Two Worlds – A Process Guide for Incorporating Indigenous Foods into Institutions
• BC Medical Journal – Integration of Traditional Medicine Practices into Western Primary Care
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• In Plain Sight
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
• Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 
• First Peoples, Second Class Treatment
• Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act 
• Me and White Supremacy, written by Layla F. Saad
• The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don’t Want to Know, written by Tema Okun
• Anti-Racist Health Care Practice, written by Elizabeth McGibbon and Josephine Etowa
• Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City, written by Adele Perry and Mary Jane Logan McCallum

Podcasts and Radio

• Indigenous Peoples and Public Health
• First Nations, Second Class Care
• All our Relations: Finding the Path Forward

Documentaries and Interviews

• Tips for Effective Allyship
• Mansbridge One on One: Cindy Blackstock
• The Messenger: Jordan River Anderson