Olivier Wilson

Blending dreams and visions, the links between well-being and the land are explored in a deeply personal view on Indigenous health and the power of Indigenous Resurgence. Insights from family, friends, Indigenous health professionals, leading scholars on decolonization, and seminal reports are drawn upon to expose the harms of Indigenous-specific racism in British Columbia’s health care system and describe Indigenous communities’ jurisdiction, capability, and efforts to re-establishing sovereignty over health. The strengths of these efforts are celebrated and linked with the need for greater Indigenous self-determination and sustainable connections with traditional territories. In this way, a decolonized vision of Indigenous health is presented that asserts that Indigenous peoples’ will direct future change and encourages settler society, especially social services and health care professionals, to take stock and positively contribute to Indigenous health sovereignty. From the perspective of a Cree Métis person and a future social worker, the presentation is a journey, a vision of opportunities, and the audience is encouraged to share in and re-work this vision so it best fits the local and inarguably personal factors that shape understandings of well-being and connections with the land. Olivier is grateful for the audience’s engagement with the presentation, and hopes it is received not as prescriptive or definitive, but simply one person’s attempt to make sense of their own experience and desire for a future where access to health care and self-determination are equally shared between the residents of Turtle Island.