You Belong to Everyone

Abstract

Indigenous peoples in Canada have suffered from ongoing impacts of colonization. The topic of Indigenous health is wholistic and intricate, spanning from individual to kin, to land, economy, socialization, and all things. Such intricacies have been impacted by colonial systems wherein many have left their traditional land bases and communities to pursue other opportunities or to flee circumstance on their home territories. This paper uses Indigenous methodologies to collect qualitative data on the experiences for some First Nations peoples connected to the Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre, on Vancouver Island when relocating off-reserve. Elders were selected as the sample based on the traditional perspective of knowledge and wisdom. As a result, six common themes from experiences were connection, way of living, education and employment, colonialism, land, and quality of health care. Further, axial coding found four action-based themes to be applied from the research. Racism, relevance, restrictions, and resources created the ‘Four R’s’ as recommendations for larger health systems in British Columbia.