Welcome to glimpses and visions.

Joshua Borja

Dr. Angie Wong

HSOC 311 L01 W25

5 March 2025

Glimpses of Healing, Visions of Care: A Website

            Acknowledging past harms and working to rectify ongoing injustices starts with building a knowledge base that captures the truth as told by Indigenous peoples and participating in discourse that amplifies Indigenous voices and perspectives. Health equity cannot be achieved if those who have been marginalized continue to be marginalized and those whose voices have been shut out continue to be shut out. My website, https://www.glimpses-and-visions.com, seeks to amplify these perspectives. My aim in creating a website was to encourage discourse and facilitate a creative exploration of the key figures that have shaped health services and health systems in Canada, contemporary challenges in the social determinants of health, healing within the Indigenous community, and advocacy efforts to improve health outcomes. By achieving this aim, I wanted to acknowledge past harms, address present inequities and inspire action towards future justice. Therefore, my website offers a glimpse into the past and present, as well as visions for the future.

            First, I offer reflections about some key historical figures that we have learned about throughout the course. From Jacques Cartier to Tommy Douglas, I discuss some of the actions that have been taken to help shape health services and health systems in Canada. Importantly, I discuss the complexities of these individuals’ actions, especially with special attention to the harm they have caused Indigenous peoples. I draw from Shaheen-Hussein’s emphasis on the power dynamics that shape health outcomes (52), such that these historical figures have acted in the interests of white settlers, where power was concentrated at the expense of Indigenous groups. I hope to have effectively provided a starting point for viewers to understand how these certain power dynamics stem from settler colonial attitudes and have perpetuated systemic barriers to health care, intergenerational trauma, and ongoing disparities in health outcomes experienced within Indigenous communities. By contextualizing contemporary health challenges with the actions of historical figures, I aim to showcase how the consequences of their decisions are not simply historical footnotes but continue to reverberate today. Ultimately, I seek to provide viewers with a meaningful starting point for deeper critical engagement, dialogue, and advocacy. Thus, my website encourages viewers to challenge conventional narratives and foster a greater understanding of the historical roots underlying current health inequities in Canada.

            Secondly, I illustrate the present health challenges that people continue to experience. I provide reflections on the social determinants of health and emphasize how Indigenous peoples fall unfavourably on the health gradient. I emphasize the disproportionate burdens faced by Indigenous peoples, who consistently find themselves disadvantaged due to historical and ongoing marginalization. I take my discussion of health inequities upstream, where I reflect on the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age. My website facilitates an exploration of the broader social, economic, and political forces that are the foundation of the distribution and accessibility of health-promoting resources and opportunities. That is, I discuss how Indigenous peoples have minimal access to health-promoting resources and opportunities because of their socioeconomic status and childhood experiences. I reflect on these social determinants with the recognition that these mechanisms have operated under the broader context of settler colonialism. As Shaheen-Hussain describes the importance of dismantling the underlying structural causes of causes (49), I hope that my website acts as a platform to shed light on these structural determinants so that viewers have the basic knowledge to participate in the fight against ongoing injustices.

            In addition to the reflections on social determinants of health, my website includes an “In the News” section, where I have synthesized a collection of news stories showcasing contemporary challenges relating to health equity and access to care. With the selected readings included on my website, viewers are presented with evidence that health inequities continue to cause suffering and harm and that various social determinants of health disproportionately affect Indigenous groups.

                 Thirdly, I have included an art gallery specifically dedicated to showcasing pieces of Indigenous beadwork. My website is a platform to amplify Indigenous storytelling. Particularly, I wanted to emphasize the process of healing on my website and highlight the resilience of Indigenous groups despite all the trauma that has been inflicted upon them. This section aims to move away from the acknowledgement of harm to the celebration of Indigenous reclamation and the continuity of culture and tradition. By showcasing Indigenous art, my website aims to highlight beadwork as more than just a form of artistic expression but also how it embodies resilience, strength and the vitality of Indigenous cultures and traditions. I highlight artists who use their art as a meaningful avenue for connection with their community, their ancestors, and the land. Through these creative practices, Indigenous Peoples engage in acts of healing as they ground themselves in the identities and knowledge passed down by their ancestors who persisted despite adversity. Growing up with my friends with First Nations identities, I often admired how they used art to connect with their culture. It was inspiring to see them restore a traditional practice that was once forbidden. Despite the trauma and pain that their families faced, they were able to create something beautiful. While I chose various Indigenous artists based in Canada, I deliberately chose to include Christi Belcourt because she did a residency at my elementary school. Given my experience in this course and reflecting back on my experience with Christi, I now have a deeper appreciation for art as a mode of healing. Even with a history so dark, Indigenous peoples are able to reclaim their voices and identity with every stroke of colour. I wanted to showcase this process of healing by spotlighting local artists on the website.

            Another goal of my website is to highlight the future directions of health in Alberta. The future directions I am most hopeful about involve civil society activism. There is a dedicated section for advocacy that showcases civil society activism as an avenue for meaningful change. I offer strategies for my viewers to engage in civil society activism and also highlight student work from HSOC 301 as students advocated for a particular civil society organization. I interviewed students from the class and curated webpages specific to the civil society organization they advocated for. On those web pages, I have contact information for each of the civil society organizations as well as quotes from my interviews with the students. I also included the academic poster they presented that contains information about their civil society organization’s mission, visions, and activities. The students also presented on the future they envisioned and were advocating for. There are also donation buttons for people to click on and learn more about the organization or contribute financially to their efforts. The “upcoming events” webpage contains information about volunteer opportunities within Alberta that viewers can participate in. Additionally, there is a webpage specifically dedicated to highlighting examples of direct action by activists in Canada. The “take action” tab provides three ways in which people can apply what they have learned from my website, which are to 1) participate, 2) donate, or 3) volunteer.

            Overall, I draw inspiration from Mary Jane Logan MacCallum’s emphasis on carefully contextualizing trauma within specific historical, social, and political circumstances rather than treating it as a generalized concept (MacCallum 109-111). MacCallum argues that trauma should not be seen as a singular episode, as this perspective risks oversimplifying diverse Indigenous histories and ignores the ongoing structural realities of settler colonialism that continue to perpetuate harm (MacCallum 110). Using this discussion as motivation, my website deliberately contextualizes trauma by explicitly linking it to historical figures, colonial policies, and contemporary social determinants of health. I emphasize the structural roots that underlie present inequities, like past actions of historical figures as well as contemporary social barriers. Furthermore, drawing from MacCallum’s emphasis on moving beyond trauma, my website transitions purposefully from discussions of trauma to explorations of healing, resilience, reclamation and activism. By showcasing Indigenous beadwork, I celebrate creative acts of resistance and highlight the strength and vitality of Indigenous cultures as a powerful antidote to trauma. Additionally, by including sections on civil society activism, I amplify Indigenous resilience and self-determination, encouraging active engagement from viewers. Thus, my website functions holistically as a platform not only to examine trauma within a nuanced historical context critically but also to facilitate meaningful discourse on Indigenous resilience and inspire collective action towards healing, justice, and structural change.

Works Cited

McCallum, Mary Jane Logan. “Starvation, Experimentation, Segregation, and Trauma: Words for Reading Indigenous Health History.” The Canadian Historical Review, vol. 98, no. 1, 2017, pp. 96–113, https://doi.org/10.3138/chr.98.1.McCallum.

Shaheen-Hussain, Samir. “Social Determinants of Health: Equality, Equity, and Limitations.” Fighting for a Hand to Hold, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020, pp. 47–65, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780228005131-009.