Responding Through the Arts: MMIWG2S+ Toolkit
An interdisciplinary research collective of Indigenous peoples and settlers who together explored how arts-based, antiracist educational strategies support emerging health and education professionals in engaging with and responding to the MMIWG2S+ report.
Our Story
We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.
TRC Call to Action #24
This research project was born as a response to horrific injustices that Indigenous peoples specifically face in health and education systems. Within higher education, opportunities for emerging professionals to engage in transformative reflection on the experiences of MMIWG2s+ and Indigenous-specific racism are broadly unavailable. Places of education and learning have been built on colonial systems of thought and action, and engaging education and health professionals during this important developmental period is crucial if we want profound and necessary shifts to occur. Arts-based, antiracist workshops can foster alternative and transformative learning experiences and increase critical engagement with challenging topics, as they engage both thinking and feeling processes, oftentimes in community with others.
This research project formed an interdisciplinary research collective of Indigenous peoples and settlers who together explored how arts-based, antiracist educational strategies support emerging health and education professionals in engaging with and responding to the MMIWG2S+ report.
From this research, this toolkit was developed to thoughtfully engage educators and emerging professionals alike in actively responding to the MMIWG2S+ Calls to Justice, implementing anti-racist and culturally humble pedagogy, and joining together to disrupt oppressive systems of care.
How to use this toolkit:
We developed this MMIWG2S+ Toolkit to as an active, imformative and inspirational tool.
This site is designed for health educators, with a goal to inspire and equip the creation of arts-based learning experiences for Nursing Education as a way to respond to the MMIWG2S+ report.
Click through the various initiatives, galleries, links and pdfs to open your mind to new possibilities.
We hope that you are inspired by these initiatives and resources!
