Larry Grant, Musqueam First Nation Elder
To kick off the True North Forum, our president and CEO, Dr. David Ostrow, invited Larry Grant, a Musqueam First Nation elder, to explain the name dedicated to our forum.
“It was a great honour, great privilege, to be asked for words that exemplified… the teachings of our people,” shared Grant. “I want to say thank you to everyone who has participated here today, given up their time for this occasion, to share ideas together, to help each other move forward in a good way.”
The Musqueam phrase is defined as “sharing our thoughts” and appears this way in the Musqueam language:
Watch the opening of the forum where Grant teaches the audience how to pronounce the phrase (skip to 7:07).
Presentations from the first half of the forum focused on our relationship with the First Nations Health Authority, the health status of the Aboriginal population, how to be culturally-competent caregivers, and the work underway to identify health care gaps in urban, rural and remote communities.
Closing the forum, Grant summed up the discussion well, asking us all to think about our history, and why the health state of Aboriginal people is the way it is today. As caregivers, “we all know that if you have a thorn in your foot, you can’t cure it with a band-aid because the core of the problem is not being addressed,” he said. “Some of you may say [the core of the problem is] not a health issue, it’s a social issue, but we are all in a position as caregivers to make that change.”
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