Indigenous Health Conference

May 21-23, 2020 - Sheraton on the Falls Hotel, Niagara Falls Canada
 

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We are pleased to host the 2020 Indigenous Health Conference (IHC) in Niagara Falls. The conference will be held from May 21-23 2020, at the Sheraton Niagara Falls.

The Niagara region is a natural choice as the location is rich in Indigenous history; the Treaty of Niagara was signed in 1764 bringing over 2500 Indigenous peoples together and numerous Indigenous landmarks including the Landscape of Nations: The Six Nations & Native Allies Commemorative Memorial, the First Nations Peace Monument, Fort George, Fort Erie and the Laura Secord Trail are within the region.

This interdisciplinary conference will bring together Indigenous peoples, health care providers, researchers and experts in the field who are working to address the huge health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. This disparity has its roots in colonization. As revealed by the Truth and Reconciliation and Murdered and Missing women’s reports much of the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada was minimized or erased. This negatively impacted the health and lives of many Indigenous peoples as traditions were stripped away and families torn apart.

Addressing this huge health disparity, requires Indigenous peoples, experts in the field and healthcare providers to examine the evidence and create dialogue to improve the understanding of healthcare needs. The 4^th biennial IHC will provide such a forum.

The focus for this year’s conference is the future and how we can cultivate the youth as tomorrow’s leaders and agents of change. Topics will include youth leadership, suicide prevention, impact of colonization murdered and missing Indigenous women, determinants of health, Indigenous ways of knowing.

Through this conference we hope to create better educated, more culturally safe health care providers for Indigenous peoples and to nurture the future leaders in healthcare for Indigenous communities.

Profile Your Work!

The conference primarily is through the voices of Indigenous peoples. Through the call for abstracts, we will profile the work of our community partners who are involved in Indigenous health throughout Canada who can present their work through workshops, oral abstracts and posters.

Get Your Resume Ready!

A job fair will connect health providers with recruiters promoting employment opportunities in northern and underserved communities across Canada. There are opportunities for health care providers across many disciplines, such as physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, dieticians, social workers and allied health practitioners. Be sure to bring your resume!

Conference Objectives

1. Reviewing how historical factors such as colonization, and racism have had a significant impact on the current health status of Indigenous peoples.
2. Discussing some of the major health issues for Indigenous peoples in Canada, in addition to potential solutions to address them.
3. Discussing how to support and nurture Indigenous children and youth as future leaders.
4. Engaging in respectful discussions on building trust to support the development of networks, partnerships and allyship.
5. Promote Indigenous worldview and knowledge with support of the Knowledge Keepers, Healers and Elders. To understand how Indigenous ways of knowing with respect to health and well-being can be utilized in healthcare approaches for Indigenous peoples.
6. Knowledge translation and dissemination of the most up to date health care research relevant to the health of Indigenous peoples and to provide a networking opportunity between Indigenous community members, healthcare practitioners, researchers and policymakers and the formulation of ideas for future community- based research.

Themes

Target Audience

The target audience for this inter-disciplinary health conference includes: