We Are IH: Indigenous Lead forges a path to health and wellness

In her career, Lenora has always focused on the well-being of Indigenous families. She finds inspiration assisting them thorough colonial systems, while working with the systems to deconstruct and readjust themselves to better accommodate and serve Indigenous people on their paths toward health and wellness. 

Lenora chose to work in health care to take the skills accumulated over her 30-year career as a social worker and mediator to a whole new level. 

Lenora is five months new to IH and is proud of the Indigenous Partnerships team and the level of dedication, passion and professionalism they demonstrate everyday. 

Lenora’s personal experiences as an adoptee and as an Indigenous woman who had to reclaim her cultural identity, combined with the cultural and institutional education, are what brought her to see and understand the pressures put on Indigenous families from colonial systems. 

Supporting Indigenous people to navigate the colonial systems towards meaningful restitution has been the driving force in all the work Lenora has done. She has worked at all levels and angles of the child welfare system, helped develop training materials for temporary caregivers of Indigenous children, taught student social workers at universities, and worked on Nations-level issues with First Nations leaders at home. Lenora also has her own mediation practice.

“In every aspect of our lives, as Indigenous peoples, we face racism, discrimination and abuse," Lenora says. "Whether it’s in the child welfare system or health system, these assimilation processes end up pitting us against each other or selling out to the pressures of an economic system that is not reflective of our own laws, values and principles. All of these issues impact the overall wellness of our families, communities and Nations.”

While the term “reconciliation” is a good cause and movement for mainstream society, it’s a term Lenora has always struggled with. While appreciative of the actions and discussions the term generates, Lenora feels the term that needs attention and focus is “restitution.” Restitution is "the restoration of something lost or stolen to its proper owner." Lenora shares strong words by Taiaiake Alfred:

“If we do not shift away from the pacifying discourse of reconciliation and begin to reframe people’s perceptions of the problem so that it is not a question of how to reconcile with colonialism that faces us, but instead how to use restitution as the first step towards creating justice and a moral society, we will be advancing colonialism, not decolonization.”

“Restitution is not a play on white guilt; that is what reconciliation processes have become...When I speak of restitution, I am speaking of restoring ourselves as peoples, our spiritual power, dignity, and the economic bases for our autonomy.”

Wasase: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom, 2005

Further, settler colonialism and presentation of an incomplete teaching of racism can in fact support a notion of white fragility by further increasing implicit bias, and thereby lending to less effective support for Indigenous client care.

Lenora knows this way of thinking may be a challenge for many to digest, but it’s an accurate reflection of her very political and day-to-day views on reconciliation. Lenora will do her part to advance justice and restitution for Indigenous Peoples, using the tools currently at hand—the notion of reconciliation—but will still speak about the true path to justice and gently remind others of how to effectively right the wrongs.

While many of the issues Indigenous Peoples face daily are indeed daunting, Lenora feels she is in a good work environment that will support her to further advocate for changes to improve the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples of the Interior and beyond.

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