This past month, staff from the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health (NCCDH), a public health knowledge centre hosted by StFX, sat in circle with members of the Toronto Indigenous Health Advisory Circle (TIHAC) to begin writing the Circle’s story. The NCCDH is co-writing TIHAC’s story with Rebeka Tabobondung and Erica Commanda of MUSKRAT, an online Indigenous arts and culture magazine.
TIHAC is a self-determining advisory group representing Indigenous people in Toronto. It was established through the collaboration of Indigenous and non-Indigenous health agencies in the city, including Toronto Public Health and the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network.
As an organization, TIHAC envisions a thriving, healthy Indigenous community in Toronto through the respectful harmonizing of practices, policies and resource allocation. Its mandates are to guide and advise provincial health systems in their health programs and services for Indigenous people and to influence the policies that impact the health of Indigenous people in Toronto.
The NCCDH has been in conversation with TIHAC members about this partnership for over a year. Partners hope that telling the story of TIHAC’s success will spark similar collaborations across the country.
The NCCDH’s portion of the project is being led by Karen Fish, a knowledge translation specialist.
She says TIHAC’s story points to a community-driven, culturally inspired approach to improving the health of Toronto’s diverse and inequitably-served Indigenous population.
The story will describe the cultural and spiritual practices that have been foundational to TIHAC’s work. It will also highlight what Circle members, Youth and Elder advisors, and health system staff have learned in working toward “A Reclamation of Well Being,” the name of Toronto’s first Indigenous health strategy for Indigenous peoples in Toronto.
The story will be jointly published by TIHAC and the NCCDH in June 2018.