Making space for indigenous knowledge in canadian health librarianship: A literature review and recommendations

Abstract

Introduction: In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 22 called upon “those who can effect change within the Canadian health-care system to recognize the value of Aboriginal healing practices” [1]. Given that research has shown that health libraries have the ability to help bring about change in the healthcare system, to what extent does the health library literature reflect a change in practice that recognizes the value of Indigenous healing practices? Methods: In this literature review, we searched for keywords and controlled terms, or subject headings, on Indigenous topics within three key North American health library journals: the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association (JCHLA) (indexed in CINAHL); the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) (Ovid MEDLINE); and Medical Reference Services Quarterly (MSRQ) (Ovid MEDLINE). A modified version of Smylie et al’s approach to critical self-reflection guided by Indigenous knowledge translation principles [2] was then used to analyse the papers and suggest potential avenues for future research. Results: Our initial search retrieved 8 articles from JMLA, 2 from MRSQ, and 14 from JCHLA, which our exclusion criteria reduced to 5 articles that we then qualitatively analyzed. Of these results only 2 articles reflected a substantial engagement with Indigenous knowledge translation practices. Discussion: Most of the articles did not explicitly engage in selfreflection about how the authors’ personal, professional, or systemic privileges and biases might impact their work with Indigenous health topics. Conclusion: We suggest that health librarians can critically reflect both personally and through their national association regarding changes in professional practice that have the potential to make health libraries safer places for Indigenous peoples and reflect a deeper respect for their knowledge systems.