Reflection Essay: Indigenous Health, Racism, and Social Determinants

This reflection essay examines the determinants of Indigenous Peoples' health in Canada, focusing on the impact of social contexts, racism, and white privilege. The author reflects on the historical context, including colonization and its effects on Indigenous communities, and the role of the term 'aboriginal' in the Canadian Constitution. The essay highlights the importance of understanding social determinants of health and the complexities of racism, including racial oppression. It also explores the concept of white race privilege and its denial or unearned nature, drawing on research to analyze the historical and ongoing challenges faced by Indigenous populations. The reflection emphasizes the need to consider the systemic nature of racism and its impact on Indigenous disadvantage, drawing from the provided bibliography and secondary sources to support the analysis and conclusion that racism affects the lives of everyone.

Running head: REFLECTION
Reflection
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1REFLECTION
With the reading of the book, Determinants of Indigenous Peoples’ Health in Canada:
Beyond the social, I found out that the indigenous people of Canada and the entire world are
popular for a long term of the non- Indigenous scholars, decision makers and health care
professionals. I could connect to the relation of the mainstream medicine and public health and
the method of the partial determination of social context is in contrary to the lone dictatorship.
This particular reliability and grip have come up as a growing body of research as well as
literature which are popular as the social determinants of health.
With further reading about the society, the individual and medicine I have learnt that that
the term ‘aboriginal’ was used in the 1982 Canadian Constitution to assign the first nations, Inuit
and Métis people of Canada. As per United Nations, indigenous is related to the explanation of
the own identified people who used to reside historically in the same land where they are
currently staying. I found out that among the three groups that have been mentioned earlier the
first one constitute of 60%, the second in 33% and the last 4%. It is a matter of fact that the
before the connection was made with the Europeans, the natives used to lead a healthy life. This
is because they were a vibrant nation residing on the lands and most of them still believed in the
nomadic lifestyle.
As per the recommended study of ‘identifying white race privilege I discovered that the
white people’s race privilege in the same nation is based on the previous activities. Most of the
white people of Australia stay there due to their previous incidents of torture, murder, massacre,
poisoning, enslavement or genocide. All these heinous activities were committed against the
native people because of their race. They were the racist acts and these instances can come under
the broad heading of colonization, discrimination, racism and oppression. I was surprised to read
in the article that the white race privilege is denied or unearned.

2REFLECTION
The reading of this particular article had quite changed my mind about the characteristics
of the natives and the aborigines. There are prevalent defensive declaration due to the
misunderstanding caused by many people between the complexity of racism and the hatred of
race. I understood from the secondary sources that when these particular people were asked
about racism they only talk about racial oppression and systematic oppression. By learning about
this situation I came to the conclusion that the issue of racism with regard to racial oppression is
related to the indigenous people. It is basically a system that surrounds us and not inherent within
us. The Australians thus consider racism to be the cause of Aboriginal disadvantage. The most
important fact that I have gained from this article is that we do not consider racism with respect
to the white race privilege. I think that all of us always consider that our lives are not affected by
racism.

3REFLECTION
Bibliography
Fredrickson, G. M. (2015). Racism: A short history. Princeton University Press.
Greenwood, M., De Leeuw, S., Lindsay, N. M., & Reading, C. (Eds.). (2015). Determinants of
Indigenous Peoples' Health. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Inman, A. G., Tummala-Narra, P., Kaduvettoor-Davidson, A., Alvarez, A. N., & Yeh, C. J.
(2015). Perceptions of race-based discrimination among first-generation Asian Indians in
the United States. The Counseling Psychologist, 43(2), 217-247.
Tannoch-Bland, J. (1998). Identifying white race privilege. Bringing Australia together: The
structure and experience of racism in Australia, 33-38.