MAMU First Nation, a collective of nearly 40 Indigenous land guardians and hereditary chiefs from the Atikamekw and Innu nations, has filed a lawsuit in the Quebec Superior Court, seeking formal recognition of their rights over territory between the St. Lawrence River, the Saint-Maurice River valley, and northern Mauricie. Their[Read More…]
Tag: Indigenous
Nunavik’s disproportionately high suicide rate reveals colonialism’s continued impact on mental health
Content warning: Mentions of suicide Feb. 2 to Feb. 8 marked Quebec’s Suicide Prevention Week. The province entered the awareness week with a statistic that sounds like a clear public health win: The suicide rate has dropped to 11.9 per 100,000 people, making it the lowest observed since 1981. However,[Read More…]
Indigenous justice workshop explores Indigenous rights and activism in the Americas
McGill Faculty of Law’s Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) hosted a workshop titled “Revitalization of Indigenous Justice in the Americas” over Zoom on Thursday, Jan. 29. The event featured three speakers active in Indigenous rights advocacy, including attorney Elizabeth Olvera Vásquez, McGill BCL/JD candidate Tarek Maussili, and[Read More…]
A diabetes peer mentorship program launches for First Nations youth
Diabetes is often framed as a purely medical condition, managed through medications, blood sugar monitoring, and lifestyle changes. For many Indigenous youth in Canada, however, history and culture shape how they experience the condition. The enduring impacts of colonialism, intergenerational trauma, and the healthcare system’s failure to provide culturally sensitive[Read More…]
Designing culturally safe interventions in obstetrics
Sept. 28, 2025, marks five years since the death of Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman who died of pulmonary edema—fluid accumulation in the lungs—due to medical negligence in a northern Montreal hospital, Centre Hospitalier de Lanaudière. Joyce livestreamed the persistent mistreatment and discrimination she endured while seeking medical attention,[Read More…]
New scoping review maps Indigenous harm reduction, barriers, and gaps
Indigenous Peoples across North America and Oceania experience higher rates of drug-related harm than other populations. These harms are shaped both by the historical and ongoing impacts of settler colonialism. While Indigenous Peoples in these regions are often willing to access health services that reduce the risks of drug use,[Read More…]
McGill, it shouldn’t take bodies to believe Indigenous voices
During the 2023 provincial election, Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative (PC) government refused to support a search of the Prairie Green landfill, which local police suspected contained the remains of several missing Indigenous women. This week, investigators found remains of Marcedes Myran on the site, proving that the calls for an investigation[Read More…]
Nurturing culturally safe birth care for Indigenous communities
Indigenous communities, particularly First Nations, Inuit, and Métis women, face unique and significant challenges in accessing equitable healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth. Historical and ongoing disparities in healthcare access and quality, mistreatment and abuse of Indigenous people in colonial healthcare systems, lack of healthcare services in remote communities and northern[Read More…]
Innovative approaches to modelling small-scale, Indigenous agriculture in Guatemala
Creating robust statistical models to predict crop yields, food security, and malnutrition is crucial for determining the next steps for governments, community leaders, and farmers—all of whom are stakeholders in the fight for sustainable and reliable access to food. Developing these models typically relies on detailed, long-term data, which allow[Read More…]
Addressing the Indigenous homelessness crisis—if not now, when?
All too many Indigenous residents of Tiohtià:ke—the island known to many as Montreal—face truly dire circumstances. Only recently, however, through a conversation that I shared with a lovely Inuk man named Paulu, have I come to recognize both the profound gravity and pressing urgency of the situation. During our conversation,[Read More…]