Issues in health policy for indigenous peoples in Canada

Abstract

This paper provides a preliminary report on the work of the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. This commission has spent the past four years undertaking a comprehensive review of all matters pertaining to indigenous people in Canada, and will publish a final report in late 1995 or early 1996. The paper provides an overview of health policy issues examined by the commission. The author was employed by the commission in various capacities to contribute to this analysis of indigenous people's health policy concerns. A disproportionate burden of illness has been suffered by indigenous peoples in Canada. Past policy has systematically undermined the capacity of indigenous communities to develop their own health care systems. Current concerns about health problems and services, as expressed by indigenous people at the commission's community hearings, describe a need for a community-controlled and culturally appropriate approach to healing in indigenous communities. The commission's framework for developing an indigenous people's health strategy is intended to ensure that indigenous people have the capacity, the resources and the appropriate political environment in which to implement community healing. Its relevance to the Australian context may best be seen through a careful review of the commission's final report.