Gloria Daybutch

Last week, CACHC’s co-chair Nicole Chammartin reflected on what it meant for her, as Executive Director of two Manitoba-based CHCs, to be able to spend time with CHC colleagues from across Canada during the Ontario provincial Community Health Centres annual conference, in the Toronto area. Her reflections were inspired by the presentation of an award by Ontario’s provincial CHCs association to three Ontario CHCs that will soon offer the first supervised injection services in Ontario, and how the values, commitments and goals expressed throughout the Ontario conference align very closely with those shared by Community Health Centres in Manitoba.

Today, I’ve also been reflecting on proceedings from the recent conference, and my thoughts are informed by the fact that today, June 21st, is National Aboriginal Day across Canada (in saying this, I respectfully acknowledge that the concept and celebration of “National Aboriginal Day” summons very different emotions and reactions for first peoples throughout Turtle Island).

It was encouraging to see truth and reconciliation front and centre at the Ontario Community Health Centres conference, including very powerful keynote addresses to the 600-plus delegates by Senator Murray Sinclair (Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission) and Dr. Marcia Anderson (Head of the Section of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Health at the University of Manitoba).

In addition to these very important calls to conscience and action, there was also the very moving presentation of the Ontario association’s prestigious Joe Leonard Award to Gloria Daybutch, Executive Director of N’Mninoeyaa Aboriginal Health Access Centre, an Indigenous Community Health Centre serving seven First Nations and the city of Sault Ste. Marie, in Ontario. It was this presentation and what it signifies that resonates most with me today.

Indigenous CHCs across Canada, like the organization that Gloria leads in Ontario, are pillars for the communities they serve. They are grounded in a wholistic vision of health and wellbeing, which is captured well in the Wholistic Model of Health and Wellbeing developed by Indigenous CHCs in Ontario with collaboration from the provincial association.

Read: 2016 report from Ontario’s Indigenous CHCs

Having had the honour and privilege of working with Ontario’s Indigenous CHCs, including the ten Aboriginal Health Access Centres, I have some insight into the decades of tireless work that has gone into the achievements they have made. They have had to navigate countless political, financial and other obstacles, and their accomplishments are nothing short of breathtaking. Gloria is the true embodiment of this achievement. We hear this clearly via the many tributes paid to her by colleagues within the award presentation video.

As all of these thoughts sit here with me in my soul, I keep coming back to this: there can be no truth and reconciliation without cultural humility. If we are going to find truth and achieve reconciliation it is imperative that the broader settler society recognize the leadership of organizations such as N’Mninoeyaa Aboriginal Health Access Centre and leaders like Gloria.

More people, more communities, more governments across Canada need to acknowledge that, despite tremendous odds and inter-generational trauma, Indigenous communities and organizations are in fact already leading their own journey of healing. Settler society and our governments must respect and honour this leadership and we must disrupt the legacy of colonization by acknowledging that not only are Indigenous communities leading their own journey, but that first peoples throughout Turtle Island have wisdom, teachings and tools we must learn from as part of our own healing journey.