Join us for an engaging webinar centered on improving healthcare experiences for Indigenous children and families in Canadian children’s hospitals. This session will share the findings from a CIHR-funded environmental scan of Indigenous-focused health services and programs operating at children's hospitals across the country. Learn about the gaps and opportunities that exist in Indigenous staffing and spaces, data collection, cultural safety education, and strategic approaches. Hear about the journeys and successes of some institutions related to smudging practices and Indigenous navigation programs. 

This webinar will also share opportunities to participate in a CIHR-funded Community of Practice that has recently emerged from this work. The goal of the Community practice is to facilitate clinicians, staff, researchers, and Indigenous health program leaders learn from each other and shape practice and policies to address the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action and Joyce’s Principle. Whether you’re in clinical practice, in administration, or a patient/family advocate, this webinar hopes to provide you with ongoing fuel to champion culturally safe healthcare for every child and family.  

Amy Shawanda 
Director of Research, Kenjgewin Teg 

Dr. Amy Shawanda is an Odawa Kwe from Wikwemikong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, where she was immersed in Indigenous education and land-based learning throughout her life. This foundation shaped her path as an Indigenous health researcher dedicated to strengthening Indigenous ways of being, doing, knowing, and reclaiming.

As a distinguished scholar and educator, Dr. Shawanda has pioneered innovative research methodologies, including Dream Methodology, which expands beyond Western parameters to center Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Her work addresses critical gaps in Indigenous scholarship, including developing frameworks for citing dreams and "All My Relations" in academic writing, examining linguistic representation of Indigenous Peoples, and conducting scoping reviews on infant feeding experiences among Indigenous communities. Her research consistently focuses on unburdening Indigenous health professionals and addressing systemic racism in healthcare institutions.

In her new role as Director of Research at Kenjgewin Teg, Dr. Shawanda brings her expertise in Indigenous health, maternal health, pedagogies, methodologies, and spiritual health to advance Anishinabek research conducted by and for Indigenous communities, ensuring that research amplifies community voices and supports solutions to real and practical challenges.

Patricia Li 
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, McGill University;  
Scientist, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre;  
Pediatrician, Montreal Children's Hospital 

Dr. Li is a general paediatrician at Montreal Children’s Hospital, Associate Professor in Pediatrics at McGill University, and a FRQS senior clinician-scientist at the Centre for Health Outcomes Research at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. She works as a hospitalist on the inpatient unit and as a consultant in the Multicultural Clinic at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and the CLSC Parc-Extension. She is also part of the Northern and Indigenous Child Health Program where she serves Inuit children and families in the community of Ivujivik. Her research includes CIHR-funded research projects across a variety of topics including primary care, hospital care, migrant children, and child health equity. 

Dr. Jennifer McTaggart is a Clinical Psychologist and the Clinical Director of the Acute Mental Health Services in the Child and Youth Mental Health Program at McMaster Children’s Hospital. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University. Clinically, Dr. McTaggart’s work focuses on suicide risk assessment, youth suicide prevention, and evidence-based interventions for suicidal youth and their families. She developed the Youth with Complex Suicide Needs protocol — a community framework designed to coordinate care for youth at highest risk for suicide. Dr. McTaggart believes deeply in the power of collaboration and connection, recognizing that meaningful progress in mental health care comes from bringing people together — across disciplines, services, and communities. 

Dr. Korczak is the SickKids’ Chair in Child and Youth Medical Psychiatry, Director of the Children’s Integrated Mood and Body (CLIMB) Depression Program, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, a Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Her research activities focus on the relationship between early onset depression and future cardiometabolic risk, including obesity, and novel interventions to improve both depression and cardiovascular health.  Her secondary area of research is in child and adolescent suicide, in which she currently leads the first multi-site RCT of a youth suicide prevention intervention in Canada. Dr. Korczak also leads a large collaborative study of the mental health impact of the COVID pandemic on children and families. Dr. Korczak is the author of over 100 publications and book chapters and is a sought after speaker on the topics of depression and suicidality among children and adolescents for clinical and research audiences. She is the Chair of the Mental Health Task Force of the Canadian Paediatric Society.