Essay 1

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Indigenous Health in Canada
By: Dawsar Abdelhadi
HIST-165
Letitia Johnson
2023-01-27
2
Indigenous people in Canada have a shorter life expectancies and higher mortality rates
than non-indigenous people. In this essay, I will comment on the article written by Mary Jane
Logan McCallum. McCallum is a "research affiliate of the Manitoba First Nations Centre for
Aboriginal Health Research at the University of Manitoba,"1. McCallum’s research is unique and
genuine because it used the perspective of the Indigenous people rather than the western
perspective. In her article, she argued that colonialism and racism are determinant causes of the
disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous health in Canada. Moreover, she used
resources from indigenous health history books to support her arguments, such as Mary Ellen
Kelm, Maureen Lux, James Daschuk, and other researchers2. McCallum discussed “how
terms such as starvation, experimentation,’ segregation, and trauma., and the historians who use
them, have sharpened the broader analytics of race and colonialism in Canada as they operate in
the field of Indigenous health history.”3
Starvation and famine are always associated with ill health and susceptibility to disease in
indigenous people. Indigenous people were stigmatized as a high-risk group in health research.
This stigma questioned whether indigenous people are susceptible to illness due to ethnicity or
external causes. Native people were not naturally unhealthy4, but the starvation policy used by
colonial authorities negatively affected their health. Clearing the Plains is a book that was
written by Daschuk; it described how colonialism used starvation as a policy to empty Canadian
grasslands for white settlement. Robert Alexander Innes have shown that up to thirty-three
1
Mary Jane Logan McCallum, “Starvation, Experimentation, Segregation, and Trauma: Words
for Reading Indigenous Health History,” Canadian Historical Review 98 no.1 (2017): 98.
2
McCallum, “Starvation, Experimentation, Segregation, and Trauma,” 101, 106
3
McCallum, 96.
4
McCallum, 100.
3
percent of the Cowessess band's members were lost due to starvation in 18805. “The Cowessess
band used the annuity pay lists to figure out a more accurate number of its members to resolve
the band’s land entitlement”6. This quote proves that starvation policies led to susceptibility to
disease and increased mortality rates from diseases like tuberculosis. Understanding the root
cause of indigenous ill health is essential as hunger in indigenous history was a detritus factor in
indigenous health.
Experimentation in health science is essential for understanding medical problems, but it
should be done ethically and based on regulations. The term “experimentation” is used in recent
indigenous health history to divulge the racist and unethical treatment practiced against
indigenous people. Indigenous people were ideal subjects for experimentations, which were done
in “coercive conditions without consent or counseling”7. During the postwar era, scientists
investigated to see if indigenous malnutrition was the root cause of their dependency neglecting
the cause of indigenous suffering (racism)8. The widespread research and experimentation have
helped to create an inequitable Canadian health system. Experimentation was a tool in which
Canadian health science served colonial policies to eliminate and assimilate indigenous people.
Racial segregation imposed on indigenous people through Indigenous hospitals, reserves,
the Indian act, and residential schools widened the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous
health. McCallum’s argued that “histories of isolation and segregation in Canadian health care
are normalized as naturally occurring or as a matter of jurisdiction, moral obligation, welfare, or
5
McCallum, 102
6
McCallum, 102
7
McCallum, 104
8
McCallum, 363
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special philanthropy”9. McCallum presented Brian Sinclair as a recent example of racial
segregation in Canada. He was ignored for thirty-four hours at the emergency department in
Winnipeg before he died. Nevertheless, the investigation failed to consider racism as a
preventable cause of his death. McCallum used evidence from Maureen K. Lux's book Separate
Beds. It underscored the role of Indian hospitals as ‘‘bricks and mortar’’ sites of segregation, and
isolation” 10. Segregation in the health system in Canada is not a privilege for indigenous people
because its drawbacks are greater than its benefits. McCallum successfully highlighted how
segregation caused an ill health for Indigenous people in Canada.
The oppression, genocide, assimilation, and residential schools caused harm to
indigenous health. The relation between historical trauma and disproportionately high rates of
psychological distress and health disparities among Indigenous populations is still under debate.
McCallum reviewed how the historical trauma was interpreted through literature. McCallum
pointed to the work of American Indian studies scholar Dian Million and anthropologist Krista
Maxwell who wrote about the concept of historical trauma. As McCallum stated, bad history can
indeed cause ill health.
In conclusion, MacCallum shaded light on colonialism and racism as the root causes of
disparities between indigenous and non-indigenous health in Canada’s past and present. She
reviewed indigenous health literature to explain how starvation, experimentation, segregation,
and trauma have shaped the Canadian health system. The author did well in choosing these
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McCallum, 105
10
McCallum, 106
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keywords as they answered her arguments about indigenous health. MacCallum’s article made
Canadians rethink their history and ask for equalization of health services for all Canadians.
Bibliography
6
McCallum, Mary Jane Logan. 2017. “Starvation, Experimentation, Segregation, and Trauma:
Words for Reading Indigenous Health History.” Canadian Historical Review 98 (1): 96–
113. https://doi.org/10.3138/chr.98.1.mccallum.

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Indigenous Health in Canada

By: Dawsar Abdelhadi

the field of Indigenous health history.”3

Experimentation in health science is essential for understanding medical problems, but it

Racial segregation imposed on indigenous people through Indigenous hospitals, reserves,

are normalized as naturally occurring or as a matter of jurisdiction, moral obligation, welfare, or

special philanthropy”9. McCallum presented Brian Sinclair as a recent example of racial

Winnipeg before he died. Nevertheless, the investigation failed to consider racism as a

segregation caused an ill health for Indigenous people in Canada.

The oppression, genocide, assimilation, and residential schools caused harm to

indeed cause ill health.

reviewed indigenous health literature to explain how starvation, experimentation, segregation,

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