Indigenous glossary
Understanding these concepts is essential for healthcare professionals in Canada because they shape the historical and present-day realities of Indigenous peoples’ health, rights, and relationships with institutions. Familiarity with them supports culturally safer care, helps providers recognize how colonial policies and structures continue to affect health outcomes, and guides more respectful, rights‑based partnerships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis patients, families, and communities.
Aboriginal: A constitutional term in section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 that collectively refers to the Indian (First Nations), Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
Colonialism: A system of domination where one group imposes its political, social, and economic structures on another, leading to land dispossession and cultural suppression.
Colonization: The physical process by which settlers occupied Indigenous lands and imposed foreign systems of governance and culture.
Cultural appropriation: The adoption or use of elements from a minority culture by members of a dominant culture without understanding or respect for their original significance.
Cultural hegemony: The dominance of a ruling class's cultural and ideological norms over the rest of society.
Decolonization: The process of undoing colonialism through the revitalization and re-establishment of Indigenous cultures, traditions, and governance structures.
Determinants of Health: Factors that influence individual and community health, categorized as proximal (e.g., behaviours, physical environment) or distal/structural (e.g., racism, colonialism).
Ethnocentrism: The tendency to evaluate other societal groups and cultures according to the standards and customs of one's own culture.
First Nations: One of three groups of “aboriginal peoples” in section 35.
Indian Act: Federal legislation governing registered First Nations individuals and reserves, which historically functioned as a tool for forced assimilation.
Indigenous: A term often preferred internationally to refer to the original inhabitants of a land.
Intergenerational trauma: The transmission of psychological and social effects of trauma across generations.
Inuit: One of the three constitutionally recognized groups and primarily inhabit Arctic regions.
Jordan’s Principle: A child-first principle ensuring First Nations children receive equitable health and social services without delays caused by jurisdictional disputes between government departments.
Medicine Wheel: A holistic health model representing the interconnectedness of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of well-being.
Métis: One of the three aboriginal/Indigenous peoples, characterized by mixed Indigenous and European ancestry.
Residential schools: Government-sponsored, church-run institutions where Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families to be assimilated into dominant Canadian culture.
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP): A 1991 commission established to investigate the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government and provide recommendations for change.
Self-Determination: The inherent right of Indigenous peoples to control their own affairs, including political, cultural, and social institutions.
Sixties Scoop: The large-scale removal of Indigenous children from their families by child welfare authorities to be placed in non-Indigenous homes.
Smudging: A traditional ceremony involving the burning of sacred herbs (such as sage or sweetgrass) for purification, healing, and prayer.
Sweat lodge: A traditional structure used for ceremonial purification and restoring balance among physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC): A body tasked with documenting the history and impacts of the residential school system and providing 94 calls to action for reconciliation.
