Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Racism has a profound impact on health, yet it is rarely captured in British Columbia's (BC) public health data. Without data, the full impact of racism on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples remains invisible, making it harder to address systemic inequities. This project aims to change that by developing meaningful ways to measure racism in BC's public health system. Through collaboration with Indigenous rights holders and public health leaders, we are working to identify key indicators of racism that can be used in public health reporting. Our first Knowledge Summit brought together Indigenous leaders, scholars, and decision-makers to discuss how racism operates in health systems and how it can be measured to drive change. Discussions emphasized the importance of Indigenous-led approaches to data collection, the shortcomings of existing race-based data efforts, and the potential risks of reinforcing harm if measurement strategies do not center Indigenous self-determination. Participants made it clear: without data, public health systems cannot be held accountable for the impacts of racism. This presentation will share key insights from our work, explore the challenges and opportunities in measuring racism as a determinant of health, and outline steps for ensuring that public health systems are accountable for addressing racism in ways that respect Indigenous governance and self-determination.