Keynote speech: Tanya Sirois, Executive Director of the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (RCAAQ)
Tuesday, march 14th, 2022, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Simultaneous French-English translation
Version en français disponible
Native Friendship Centres have existed for more than 50 years in Quebec. Considered the largest urban services infrastructure in Quebec and in all of Canada, the Friendship Centres have developed an expertise in health based on First Nations knowledge, traditions, and cultures. Indigenous health is rooted in a holistic concept of wellness, reflecting a healthy balance based on four dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This health arises from the harmony between all aspects of a person’s life, including the individual, family, community, and the environment, while taking into account his or her attachment to a particular place.
Ms. Sirois will outline this vision of Indigenous health and how Native Friendship Centres have become the gateway to Indigenous services as well as partners in the planning, design, and delivery of these services.
She will also explain how these centres, in collaboration with Quebec’s Réseau de la santé et des services sociaux (RSSS), have become jointly responsible for providing a systemic, social, and community-based, culturally relevant, and safe response to the needs of First Nations people in an effort to reduce social inequalities.
At the end of this conference, participants will be able to:
- Identify commonalities between the population health approach and Indigenous health approach.
- Explain the importance of striving for a balance in the different dimensions of life in order to achieve individual and collective well-being in Indigenous populations.
- Name the factors driving the deployment of urban Indigenous health care models integrated within the RSSS.
Tanya Sirois started with the Regroupement des centres d’amitié autochtones du Québec (RCAAQ) as Finance Officer in 2009 before being nominated as its Executive Director in 2013. As the RCAAQ’s Executive Director, she advocates for the rights and interests of Indigenous citizens so that they can participate in their development as part of a just and equitable society. She is a member of the Pessamit Innu First Nation and has over a decade of experience in management, public policy, and governance. Ms. Sirois holds a bachelor’s degree in business management (2004) from Université Laval and a master’s degree in public administration (2018) from the École nationale d’administration publique (ENAP). She currently serves as a socio-economic member of the Université du Québec’s Board of Governors and on the Board of Directors of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
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