We compiled some recommended actions to help guide you in these next steps.

1. Lead by example and treat Indigenous folks with dignity and respect

2. Be an active bystander when you witness harmful and problematic behaviours, especially in your work as a health and social service provider
   
   
3. Advocate for improved care in your workplace
   
   
4. Share what you’ve learned with your colleagues, friends, and family, for example:
   • Share your journey on social media
   • Email this site to a friend or colleague and discuss your learnings together
   • Host a lunch & learn at work
   • Engage with your employers and elected officials about their plans to implement recommendations from reports such as In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care
     
     
5. Seek out more experiential learning opportunities, such as:
   • Taking land and/or water-based Indigenous-led tours, such as with:
     • Takaya Tours
     • Talasay Tours
     • Homalco Wildlife & Cultural Tours
     • Haida Style Expeditions
     • Sea Wolf Adventures
     • Ahous Adventures
   • Participating in a Dechinta program rooted in Northern Indigenous knowledge and values
   • Visiting the Cheakamus Centre, a centre of excellence for outdoor, environmental, and Indigenous cultural education
     
     
6. Seek out even more learning opportunities, such as:
   • Visiting a cultural and/or educational centre, such as the Musqueam Cultural Centre, the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, or Kia’palano
   • Visiting a museum, such as the Museum of Anthropology or Monova
   • Enroll in cultural safety training, such as San’yas, Len Pierre, Indigenous Relations Academy, or Indigenous Awareness Canada
   • Participate in free post-secondary learning opportunities such as UBC’s Weaving Relations, U of A’s Indigenous Canada, or BCIT’s Indigenous Awareness

Learn more

Four main themes arose from the research team’s literature review on land-based learning, urban-Indigenous health, and cultural safety training:

1. The importance of connection to land
2. Land and water as a healer
3. The power of canoe journeys and canoe teachings
4. The role of experiential learning to advance cultural safety in healthcare

The articles below emphasize the power of Indigenous pedagogies and their importance in supporting cultural well-being and decolonization.

Connection to land

Land-based learning and environmental connections play an important role in Indigenous health and well-being, particularly for individuals living in urban settings. Land-based learning is a vital method of keeping Indigenous ways of knowing alive and transferring knowledge across generations.

Barriers to land-based learning were identified and include urbanization, capitalism, and climate change. The literature in this review also supports the need for more programming to facilitate connections to traditional land-based practices while centring environmental protection and stewardship.

• Priest, S. (2022). Land-Based Healing Through Adventure: Wise practices from Indigenous Peoples. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 17(2), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.32799/ijih.v18i2.36754.
  
  
• Bowra, A., Mashford‐Pringle, A., & Poland, B. (2021). Indigenous learning on Turtle Island: A review of the literature on land‐based learning. The Canadian Geographer, 65(2), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12659.
  
  
• Redvers, J. (2020). “The land is a healer”: Perspectives on land-based healing from Indigenous practitioners in northern Canada. International Journal of Indigenous Health, 15(1), 90–107. https://doi.org/10.32799/ijih.v15i1.34046.
  
  
• Bruno, G., Bell, R. C., Parlee, B., Lightning, P., Bull, I., Cutknife, B., & Oster, R. T. (2022). Mâmawihitowin (bringing the camps together): Perinatal healthcare provider and staff participation in an Indigenous-led experiential intervention for enhancing culturally informed care-a mixed methods study. International Journal for Equity in Health, 21(1), 164–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01764-8.
  
  

Land and water as healer

Many of the articles discussed the ways that water and land can strengthen cultural and ancestral connection, mindfulness, and spirituality. Land is a healer and has the potential to strengthen resiliency and resistance to the ongoing impacts of colonialism. Water-based teachings also hold important significance for many Indigenous Nations across Turtle Island.

• McGuire-Adams, T. (2023). Anishinaabeg Elders’ Land-based Knowledge: Enacting Bagijigan for Health and Well-being. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 14(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.18584/iipj.2023.14.2.14802.
  
  
• Wildcat, M., Simpson, M., Irlbacher-Fox, S & Coulthard, G. (2014). Learning from the land: Indigenous land-based pedagogy and decolonization. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 3(3), 1-15.
  
  
• Durán Kairies, J.-V., Rice, E. J., Stutz, S., Tan, S. W. Y., Simard, A., Ross, H., & Mashford-Pringle, A. (2024). Transform[ing] heart failure professionals with Indigenous land-based cultural safety in Ontario, Canada. PloS One, 19(5), e0302816–e0302816. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302816.
  
  
• Johnson-Jennings, M., Billiot, S., & Walters, K. (2020). Returning to Our Roots: Tribal Health and Wellness through Land-Based Healing. Genealogy, 4(3), 91. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy4030091.
  
  
• McDonald, M. (2023). Land back and land-based education: A special report (Special Report No. 2). https://yellowheadinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/YI-Land-Based-Education-Special-Report-2.2023-1.pdf.
  
  
• Hatala, A. R., Njeze, C., Morton, D., Pearl, T., & Bird-Naytowhow, K. (2020). Land and nature as sources of health and resilience among Indigenous youth in an urban Canadian context: a photovoice exploration. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 538–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08647-z.
  
  

Power of canoe journeys and teachings

Canoe teachings are an important part of Skwxwú7mesh culture and well-being, and they play an integral role in cultural revitalization. Canoe journeys and canoe teachings can provide valuable learning experiences and engage all aspects of learning: emotional (heart), spiritual (spirit), cognitive (mind), and physical (body). Programs involving preparing the canoe or journeying across waters have been shown to facilitate collective healing, expanded imagination, and feelings of hope and empowerment.

Canoe pedagogies also cross geographic boundaries and have been observed in other Indigenous communities around the world. For example, canoe or “wa’a” teachings in Hawaii have been shown to build community and enables both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Hawaiians to work together in addressing ongoing colonial trauma and health disparities.

• Nahanee, L., Nahanee, C. W., Yumagulova, L., Sperry, K., & Reynolds, J. (2021). Canoe as Teacher. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 24(1), 54.
  
  
• Findlay, D. (2023). Becoming the Imperfect Friend: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Contemplative Pathways to Healing and Reconciliation in Higher Education. Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education. https://doi.org/10.25035/jche.01.02.01.
  
  
• Ho-Lastimosa, I., Hwang, P. W., & Lastimosa, B. (2014). Insights in public health: Community strengthening through canoe culture: Ho’omana’o Mau as method and metaphor. Hawai’i Journal of Medicine & Public Health, 73(12), 397–399.
  
  

Role of experiential learning to advance cultural safety in healthcare

Experiential learning as a method for advancing cultural safety training in healthcare settings is gaining momentum. Several recent studies in Canada examined the impacts of Indigenous-led experiential learning on health practitioners’ cultural safety training and self-perceived cultural humility. In all of the studies that included an evaluation component, healthcare professionals that engaged in land-based learning programs reported improved understanding of Indigenous history, cultural protocols, and colonization in Canada.

Experiential learning provides an opportunity for healthcare practitioners to form relationships and connect with Indigenous community members. Practitioners reported increased self-awareness of their positionality and how it affects their work with Indigenous patients. These findings demonstrate the power of Indigenous experiential learning as an effective tool to educate healthcare workers and decolonize health systems.

Further research is needed to measure the long-term impacts of land-based cultural safety training and how such programming may improve patient outcomes. 

• Allan, B., Smylie, J., Wellesley Institute, issuing body, Canadian Electronic Library , distributor, & Coherent Digital. (2015). First peoples, second class treatment : the role of racism in the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada / Billie Allan, Janet Smylie. Wellesley Institute.
  
  
• Fraser, J., Voyageur, E., Willie, P., Woods, P., Dick, V., Moynihan, K., Spurr, J., McAnsh, H., Tilston, C. & Deagle, H. (2020). Learning Our Way, With the Land, and the People: A Collaborative Experience. Witness: The Canadian Journal of Critical Nursing Discourse,Vol 2(1), 25 -38. https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.54.
  
  
• Sanderson D, Mirza N, Correale H. Indigenous Land-Based Experiential Learning in Nursing Education. Journal of Nursing Education, 59(12), 721. doi: 10.3928/01484834-20201118-12. PMID: 33253404.