“It stayed with me”
Learning the legacy of Canada’s residential schools through the Indigenous Teaching Through Art programme
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19477246 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joyce Zazulak (0000-0001-7197-8792, McMaster University), Lorrie Gallant (McMaster University), Nicole Knibb (McMaster University), Laura Cleghorn (0000-0001-8712-3027, McMaster University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | medhum-2025-013318 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-215X • E-ISSN: 1473-4265 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/medhum-2025-013318 |
| PMID | 42242917 |
| OpenAlex | W7163574389 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report, the McMaster University Department of Family Medicine developed Indigenous Teaching Through Art, an experiential, arts and place-based programme for faculty, clinicians and staff to address knowledge gaps pertaining to historical injustices experienced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada, particularly related to the residential school system. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted to understand participants’ experiences of the programme and their awareness of the legacy of residential schools. This study employed the Two-Eyed Seeing approach to data analysis to guide a reflexive thematic analysis that combined Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. Two-Eyed Seeing was paramount in making meaning of and reconciling the data. Four major themes emerged: (1) experiencing; (2) reflecting; (3) meaning making and (4) acting. These themes fall directly in line with the Experiential Learning Cycle for Indigenous Learners. Although the cycle suggests an ordered progression through each element, analysis of the data showed that participants entered the programme at diverse stages of this cycle, some navigating through its entirety, while others traversed through various points within the cycle. The programme’s intention was to be a starting point for all participants, the majority were settlers, to journey toward learning and reconciliation. Based on participant data, the programme achieved this goal. Providing space for participants to learn would increase awareness and offer new knowledge and, in this journey, consider their individual responsibility to respond to what they learnt and how to provide more equitable and culturally appropriate care, education and service for Indigenous Peoples
Experiential learning · Focus group · Indigenous · Indigenous Education · Meaning (existential) · Participant observation · The arts · Thematic analysis · Traditional knowledge · Art Education and Development · Art Therapy and Mental Health · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
Implementing Anti-Racism Interventions in Healthcare Settings
Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2)
Can I use TA? Should I use TA? Should I not use TA? Comparing reflexive thematic analysis and other pattern‐based qualitative analytic approaches
Indigenous strengths-based approaches to healthcare and health professions education – Recognising the value of Elders’ teachings
Social Determinants of Health Inequities in Indigenous Canadians Through a Life Course Approach to Colonialism and the Residential School System
Educating Medical Students’ “Hearts and Minds”
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
Using Two-Eyed Seeing in Research With Indigenous People
Applications of Two-Eyed Seeing in Primary Research Focused on Indigenous Health
Disruption as opportunity
Advancing culturally competent medical education
Promoting health and wellness through Indigenous sacred sites, ceremony grounds, and land-based learning
Place-based education – a systematic review of literature
Developing Indigenous-Centered Healing, Health, and Wellness Frameworks to Strengthen Indigenous Health Systems, Decolonize Public Health, and Achieve Health Equity
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing
The Two Row Wampum-Covenant Chain Tradition as a Guide for Indigenous-University Research Partnerships
The intergenerational effects of Indian Residential Schools
Redressing First Nations historical trauma
Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization
Qualitative Quality
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |