Grant: Project Grant

What are the comprehensive gender-inclusive sexual and reproductive care desires and needs of Indigenous Peoples in Ontario? Our research project advances a commitment to providing gender-inclusive care services by those who are trained and work within a Euro-Canadian bio-medical model. Ideas of gender and sex dichotomy (for example, male/female, man/woman) are concepts brought to Turtle Island by white, christian colonizers who enforced these restrictive ideas onto Indigenous Peoples through violence, segregation, and other cruel methods of indoctrination. At the same time as strides are being made on the public commitments to decolonize health education and the provision of health, the pandemic has made it abundantly clear there remains need for more further work so the care choices made by Indigenous individuals and families takes into consideration their desires and needs. We strongly assert specific healthcare information for specific populations, like Indigenous Peoples, should be publicly available. For Indigenous people, families, and communities, the ability to understand and access comprehensive gender-inclusive sexual and reproductive healthcare services are foundational to self-determination in health, which meets the intentions of the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action numbers 18-24. Examples of sexual and reproductive healthcare services include maternity care, pregnancy planning, pregnancy termination, choice of birthplace, and gender-affirming care, which must be provided in a manner that is culturally focused and relevant to the person accessing care. Our proposed research project aims to document the comprehensive gender-inclusive sexual and reproductive care desires and needs of Indigenous peoples in Ontario through interviews with Indigenous Peoples and anyone who is involved with the planning and provision of care for Indigenous Peoples.