Registration Options:

• Free for all attendees!

Indigenous approaches to health and wellness are grounded in relationships—with land, family, community, and all that surrounds us. Yet health professionals are often educated within systems that privilege biomedical knowledge and individual approaches to care, with limited attention to the relational responsibilities that shape meaningful relationships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis individuals, families, and communities. This session invites participants to consider how Indigenous epistemologies and relational ways of knowing can inform their approach to rural medicine and community engagement.

Through land acknowledgement, storytelling, Indigenous teachings, and guided reflection, participants will explore how knowledge is connected to land, language, relationships, and lived experience. Indigenous physicians will share personal stories and teachings that will provide a grounding to explore the responsibilities, challenges, and gifts of working in relationship with Indigenous communities.

Participants will be invited to reflect on their own experiences with First Nations, Inuit, or Métis individuals, families, or communities that shaped their understanding of relationship and community. Through sharing, listening, and reflection, the session will create space for relational learning and self-location.

The session moves beyond learning about Indigenous peoples toward learning with one another through story, listening, reflection, and relationship. Participants will leave with an increased awareness of Indigenous epistemologies, greater understanding of self-location and cultural humility, and opportunities to consider how relational approaches can strengthen their practice and engagement with rural communities.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Recognize Indigenous epistemologies and their role in fostering respectful, reciprocal relationships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis individuals, families, and communities.
• Reflect on the importance of self-awareness and situating oneself in relation to others, and how this supports the practice of cultural humility.
• Engage in relational learning through sharing, listening to, and reflecting on our stories (Dibaajimowin—telling our stories) as a way of building understanding, connection, and relationship.

Dr. Mandy Buss is a Métis family physician with extensive experience working in First Nations communities in Northern Manitoba. She is the Indigenous Health Lead for Family Medicine and Director of the Indigenous Health Longitudinal Curriculum at the University of Manitoba. She is also involved in national Indigenous health and reconciliation initiatives, including the CFPC Indigenous Health Committee.

Dr. Chase McMurren | Water Song Medicine Keeper [he/they] is a Michif-Settler family and community physician based in Tkarón:to | GichiKiiwenging | Toronto. He provides medical psychotherapy and palliative care in downtown Toronto and rural generalist care in Radeyįlı́kóé (colonially known as Fort Good Hope, NWT) and Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ (Fort Simpson, NWT). Chase is particularly interested in physician health and grief-work.