Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) published its final report and calls to action for Canadian society to redress the harms of the country's Indian Residential Schools system. For a century and a half, these institutions fulfilled federal government policy to assimilate Indigenous children by removing them from their families and communities. Today, the TRCC directs attention to clear principles around reconciliation, in hopes that through the work of institutions and governments responding to the calls, relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians may be healed. However, the TRCC stops short of detailing how to achieve meaningful change. This article outlines efforts by stakeholders in one medical school to mobilize their institution around this task. The Critical Collaborative Consensus-Building Process (3CBP) described here models a decolonizing, anti-racist, and Indigenous praxis, offering insight for academic and non-academic entities alike, on how they might move structures for improved equity in a timely and cost-effective fashion. The authors highlight that institutions of higher education are socially accountable to the communities that they teach and serve, making them key players in developing strategies for a cultural shift within privileged spaces. Unravelling the social and political forces that perpetuate inequities requires attention for local complexities and clear strategies for navigating discomfort.