This project is one of two projects supported through Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)‘s 2025 Strengthening Resilient and Equitable Public Health Systems (STEPS) team grant, co-funded by CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH) and Michael Smith Health Research BC.
Team members
Principal investigators:
Cree Métis Registered Nurse Leader, Beaver Lake Cree Nation
Associate Professor, University of Victoria
Research Chair, Indigenous Health in Nursing
Bush Cree from Treaty 8 Territory
Associate Professor, School of Public Health & Social Policy, UVic
Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar (2024-29)
Hilary Fry
Labrador Inuk Registered Nurse, Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Indigenous Policy Analyst, Canadian Nurses Association
Bonnie M. Seward
Health Manager, Tsawout First Nation
Co-investigators:
Terri-Leigh Aldred, Daniele M. Behn Smith, Anita C. Benoit, Stephanie Gilbert, Nikki R. Hunter Porter, Leanne Kelly, Brenda Mishak, Melody Morton Ninomiya, Tara Sampalli, Colleen Seymour, Gail G. Tomblin Murphy, Liquaa Wazni, and Catherine A. Worthington.
Project summary
This Indigenous-led research directly addresses all four funding objectives through a tripartite co-leadership model that brings together the Indigenous-led health research team, community and Nation leadership and Knowledge Holders, and public health system and knowledge user partners to examine the four public health system (PHS) building blocks: governance, workforce, service delivery, and data practices within three community-based Indigenous health organizations. We will work with community partners to generate actionable system-level evidence on how Indigenous Knowledge Systems can shape PHS building blocks through three community-sector cases:
1) Tsawout First Nation community health centre, addressing governance authority and traditional medicine integration;
2) Rainbow Medicine Society, a community-based collective of traditional practitioners examining workforce recognition and data sovereignty challenges where traditional healing intersects with public health infrastructure; and
3) Shakes the Dust Hope Consulting, traditional healing and wellness facilitators, with Vancouver Child & Family Services Society, to address cultural safety and Indigenous-governed approaches within child and family wellness services.
Our partner community-based organizations serve as living laboratories for testing how Indigenous jurisdiction can be structurally embedded within public health systems while remaining accountable to Nation and organization-specific priorities. Through iterative Knowledge Holder–Learner mentorship collaboration, we will test public systems-level solutions by co-developing and testing governance templates, workforce role descriptions, service-delivery pathway revisions, and Nation-governed data protocols that operationalize Indigenous jurisdiction within public health systems.
Our intergenerational mentorship model builds collaborative research capacity among Indigenous traditional practitioners, knowledge holders, youth learners, nurses, public health decision-makers, and researchers across 60–90 circle encounters, with structured training for graduate interns in Indigenous research methodologies and systems analysis. This iterative knowledge mobilization research enhances translation through quarterly mentorship circles and biannual whole-group gatherings, and culminates in community-cleared multimedia resources, policy directives for partners CNA, NCCIH, and NCCDH, and UVic faculty working on curriculum alignment workshops, directly closing research-policy-practice gaps. Our equity-focused design centres Indigenous rights and governance throughout: rights-holder decision-making authority, OCAP/CARE-aligned data sovereignty, systems-thinking through context-mechanism-outcome analysis, and interdisciplinary, intersectoral collaboration.