Yvonne Boyer says there is a direct relation between the health of Indigenous people and the legal system that they live under.
The Brandon University professor has written a new book, Moving Aboriginal Health Forward: Discarding Canada’s Legal Barriers, which explores the topic.
Boyer says she got the original inspiration for the book from her aunt who was a resident at the Fort San sanitarium in Fort Qu’Appelle during the late 1920’s and 1930’s.
A picture of Fort San is on the front cover of Moving Aboriginal Health Forward.
She also says one thing that particularly horrified her over the course of researching the book is the poor nutrition Aboriginal children were exposed to in the residential school system and the negative impacts it has had on future generations.
“One of the areas that really bothers me, and it does affect people from Saskatchewan, is the nutrition in the residential schools and how that affects the generations that would come after,” she says.
At the same time, she says although the legal system has often been used in a negative way against Indigenous people, she hopes that the book encourages Aboriginal people to use the law as a way of asserting their treaty and health rights.
“I actually want people who are affected by this, who actually have these rights, to read it (the book) because often First Nations people don’t know what their rights are.”
Boyer is also a practicing lawyer and former nurse.
She is also the Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Health and Wellness at Brandon University.
Moving Aboriginal Health Forward is available through Purich Publishing.