Members of the Indigenous Health Alliance representing the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakinak and Nishnawbe Aski Nation. With members of the HealthCareCAN Board at the Great Healthcare Debate (2016), photo copyright HealthCareCAN.
Feature Project: The Indigenous Health Alliance
In 2014, the Indigenous Health Alliance was organized in order to manifest the health aspirations of three First Nations in Saskatchewan related to a declaration of crisis in violence and addictions. The Alliance started as a new frame to unpack intractable problems, but eventually grew to include three Indigenous Provincial/Territorial Organizations that represented more than 150 First Nations.
Although the project ended in 2017, the Alliance changed the narrative around Indigenous health in three important ways:
- Indigenous health was a result of a system that worked the way it was designed, not because it was broken
- IPTOs presented the first-ever, cross-provincial proposal to the federal government on health transformation; it included a focus on community priorities and a plan on how to articulate them
- That the status quo was no longer an option and that Indigenous communities were ready for the change