With funding from the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch of Indigenous Services Canada, NWAC is bolstering our engagement and advocacy on health policy and research to ensure the rights of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people are upheld. In part, this includes providing advice, guidance, and direction on issues that affect the health and wellness of the people that NWAC serves, and to ensure that this work is grounded in culturally relevant gender-based analysis (CRGBA).
NWAC strives to participate in advisory committees, working groups, and conferences, as well as monitor and attend House of Commons and Senate meetings. Most recently, we spoke on the administration and accessibility of non-insured health benefits at the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs and attended the meeting of premiers and national Indigenous leaders in Victoria, British Columbia.
NWAC also produces informational tools and materials that support our policy and advocacy work, as well as provide resources that support the well-being of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit, transgender, and gender-diverse people. Last year, we produced five resources:
- Resilience as Medicine: Balancing Mental Health and Indigenous Identity
- Anti-Indigenous Systemic Racism in Canadian Health Care Systems
- Impacts of COVID-19 On Indigenous Women and Gender-Diverse People
- Climate Change
- Over-Incarceration of Indigenous Women
To expand on this work, we will be developing three factsheets and three policy briefs on a variety of topics. These include food insecurity, maternal and child health, navigating non-insured health benefits, Jordan’s Principle, health inequities in rural/remote Indigenous communities, and how to implement CRGBA in health policy development.
We look forward to sharing more on these important resources as the year progresses!