February 11, 2025

This article is part of the Cultural Competency Connections series, which aims to highlight stories of culturally safe kidney research, unpack key learnings from community engagement, and amplify Indigenous voices and leadership.

Indigenous members at Can-SOLVE CKD have spent years cultivating a unique culture within the network that is rooted in Two-Eyed Seeing — where the benefits of both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing and being are recognized and appreciated.   

Now these leaders, who make up the Indigenous Peoples’ Engagement and Research Council (IPERC) at Can-SOLVE CKD, have been awarded a grant to expand their work beyond the network, bringing together cultural safety thought leaders from across Canada in a Circle of Practice. The aim of the gathering is to learn from one another and explore ways to advance cultural safety initiatives more broadly in mainstream health research.  

Over the years, IPERC has taken many steps to foster cultural safety, which involves respect of individuals’ unique cultures and needs, and recognizing the inherent power imbalances they may face in the health-care system. Examples of IPERC’s important work include providing guidance on Indigenous-specific research projects, leading ceremonies, presenting at conferences on culturally appropriate ways to engage with Indigenous communities, and developing the Learning Pathway, an eight-step cultural competency resource.  

Taken as a whole, these efforts have helped to amplify Indigenous voices and stories, raise awareness of racial biases within health research, foster understanding of the impact of colonization on Indigenous health, and promote culturally safe health research practices. They have also helped foster a more culturally safe environment within the Can-SOLVE CKD Network.  

Casting a wider cultural competency net  

Craig Settee, a member of Fisher River Cree Nation and the former Cultural Competency Manager at Can-SOLVE CKD, had a vision to broaden the scope and impact of cultural safety work, like what IPERC has accomplished, through the concept of a Circle of Practice. He initiated an application for a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) dissemination grant in the fall of 2024 with noted Indigenous health researcher Dr. Malcolm King, a member of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, acting as the project’s principal investigator.  

“IPERC has been doing great [cultural safety] work for seven or eight years, but their work isn’t done,” explains King, who is also a member of IPERC. “It’s a generational [effort], and so we need to be able to get the information out to the wider circle of Indigenous health research.” 

The Circle of Practice will be a gathering of people from across Canada who have been working to advance cultural competency initiatives within their respective organizations. Along with members of IPERC, there will be representatives from ACCESS Open Minds, Diabetes Action Canada, and other health research entities. The meeting is expected to take place in Vancouver in the spring of 2025, offering attendees an opportunity to exchange cultural safety ideas and examples of what has worked well. 

Current funding will cover one in-person meeting, and King and his colleagues are exploring long-term funding to continue the Circle of Practice in the future. “There’s a lot of fairly rapid evolution in Indigenous health research that we need to keep the research community up to date on,” King explains.  

Cultural competency is rooted in Two-Eyed Seeing 

Cultural safety is rooted in a Two-Eyed seeing approach, first conceptualized by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall, which means recognizing that the people you interact with see the world differently from how you do. As King points out, broader adoption of a Two-Eyed Seeing approach will help foster a more culturally safe environment for not only Indigenous people, but also other equity-seeking groups. 

“Another reasonable term is cultural humility — to say that your way is not the only way,” explains King. “So, if we can get that across to our research community, that they need to take into account other ways of knowing and doing, then I think we will have accomplished something. It would mean that the research that they’re doing is more inclusive of everyone — it’s more diverse, it’s more equitable.” 

Want to learn more about IPERC and the Indigenous Initiatives Team and hear about cultural competency initiatives at Can-SOLVE CKD Network? We invite you to watch Acknowledging and respecting self-determination of Indigenous Health and Wellness, a presentation from the Indigenous Initiatives Team to Province Wide Rounds, a collaboration of BC Renal and the University of British Columbia’s Division of Nephrology.