November is Indigenous Disabilities Awareness Month

Indigenous understandings of wellness emphasize balance across all aspects of life. However, historical policies and healthcare inequities have had lasting impacts on health outcomes. Research has documented the influence of nutrition and starvation experiments conducted in Residential Schools on Canada’s Food Guide, while ongoing issues such as food insecurity and barriers to accessing nutritious foods remain important concerns in many Indigenous communities. Historical and ongoing factors like these can contribute to chronic health challenges, including the disproportionately high rates of diabetes experienced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada.

This Indigenous Disabilities Awareness Month, take time to explore Indigenous perspectives on health, healing, wellness, and disability. Better understanding the experiences, strengths, and challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples can help foster more inclusive communities and services. Visit the Library’s Indigenous Health and Well-Being Guide and the featured resources below to continue your learning journey.

Library Guide

• Indigenous Health and Well-Being Guide Explore a curated collection of resources designed to support learning, teaching, and research related to Indigenous health and well-being. This guide brings together books, articles, databases, reports, and community-informed resources that explore Indigenous perspectives on health, wellness, healing, and health equity. You’ll also find information on Indigenous Knowledges, cultural safety, reconciliation in healthcare, and the social determinants of health, along with tools to help you begin your research and access library services.

Books

• School-Parent Collaborations in Indigenous Communities : Providing Services for Children with Disabilities This book explores how culturally grounded partnerships between schools and Indigenous families can improve support for children with disabilities, highlighting the role of educators as cultural mediators and offering practical insights from a case study in a Bedouin community.
• The Arts of Indigenous Health and Well-Being (physical book ) This interdisciplinary collection explores how Indigenous art, storytelling, music, film, and other creative practices support healing, cultural continuity, and holistic well-being, highlighting the vital role of artistic expression in advancing Indigenous health and resilience.
• Coming Full Circle: Spirituality and Wellness among Native Communities in the Pacific Northwest This book examines how Coast Salish and Chinook communities have shaped culturally grounded approaches to health and healing, demonstrating how Indigenous spiritual traditions and community knowledge can be integrated with modern healthcare to improve well-being and support tribally controlled care.
• Determinants of indigenous peoples’ health : beyond the social This edited collection, comprised largely of contributions by Indigenous authors, offers the voices and expertise of First Nations, Inuit, and Metis writers from across Canada. The multitude of health determinants of Indigenous peoples are considered in a selection of chapters that range from scholarly papers by research experts in the field, to reflective essays by Indigenous leaders.
• Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Wellbeing This handbook examines Indigenous well-being through physical, social, emotional, economic, cultural, spiritual, and subjective dimensions, providing global perspectives and evidence-informed insights to support policies and programs that improve outcomes for Indigenous communities.
• Walking Together, Working Together: Engaging Wisdom for Indigenous Well-Being In this book, Indigenous Elders, healers, Western physicians, and scholars seek complementarities between Indigenous practices and Western biomedicine.
• Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teachings, and Story Medicine This book draws on the teachings of Métis, Cree, and Anishinaabe Elders to explore the roles, responsibilities, and experiences of Indigenous women across life stages, highlighting how traditional knowledge can support healing, well-being, and the rebuilding of healthy Indigenous communities today.
• Growing up healthy : a resource booklet for First Nations and Metis parents in Manitoba. This booklet will help you learn how your children can grow up in a healthy way. It will help you think about healthy food and being active. It shares stories, culture and knowledge about traditional foods, hearing, dental and eye health, immunizations, sleeping and being safe.

Videos

• Nadine Caron : Canada’s first female Indigenous surgeon This video features Nadine Caron, Canada’s first Indigenous female general surgeon, as she reflects on her experiences confronting racism in the healthcare system and advocates for more equitable, culturally informed care for Indigenous peoples.
• The Gift of Diabetes  This documentary follows Indigenous filmmaker Brion Whitford as he confronts diabetes by reconnecting with Indigenous teachings and the Medicine Wheel, exploring how culture, healing, and the lasting impacts of colonization influence health and well-being.