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In Canada, Indigenous peoples bear a greater burden of illness and suffer disproportionate health disparities compared to non-Indigenous people. Difficult access to healthcare services has contributed to this gap. In this article, we present findings from a dissemination grant aimed to engage Indigenous youth in popular theatre to explore inequities in access to health services for Indigenous people in a Western province in Canada. Following an Indigenous and action research approach, we undertook popular theatre as a means to disseminate our research findings. Popular theatre allows audience members to engage with a scene relevant to their own personal situation and to intervene during the performance to create multiple ways of critically understanding and reacting to a difficult situation. Using popular theatre was successful in generating discussion and engaging the community and healthcare professionals to discuss next steps to increasing access to healthcare services. Popular theatre and short dramas provide a venue for mirroring stigmatized care and expose racial biases in the delivery of care. The contributions of the students, their input, and their acting were to increase our awareness even more of the pervasiveness of the stigmatized care that Indigenous people experience.

Indigenous women face many barriers to maternal care during pregnancy in Canada. A participatory study was conducted in two First Nations Communities in Nova Scotia, Canada to gain new knowledge about Mi’kmaw women’s experiences of living with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Relational ethics helped guide this journey. In this paper we describe how Indigenous and Western approaches were used to understand Mi’kmaw women’s experiences with GDM. It was important to us that the research methodology facilitated building relationship and trust. This led to an openness and willingness of the women to express their concerns and offer ways to address GDM in their communities. The challenges of blending Indigenous approaches with Western research are also discussed in the paper. The foundational principles that were used during this research included: 1) Staying true to my word; 2) Mutual Trust; 3) Mutual Respect; 4) Being Flexible; 5) Being Non judgemental; 6) Working in partnership; 7) Taking time to explain; 8) Promoting autonomy; and 9) Genuine connectiveness. The findings revealed that the research assisted the Mi’kmaw women in understanding their experiences in new ways and helped to build capacity so that they could take action to improve their health, while sustaining their Mi’kmaw culture.