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Parts Known & Unknown: Exploring the Borders of Truth, Reconciliation and Redress

Every Child Matters

Parts Known & Unknown:  Exploring the Borders of Truth, Reconciliation and Redress

W. Kamau Bell joined Anthony Bourdain in Kenya in what was to be the final season of the CNN series, Parts Unknown. Kamau has roots in Kenya and this was his first time travelling to the motherlands of his people, and he stated something that I thought was interesting. He said something like, “coming to Kenya, you know, it’s nice to have a diasporic-kind-of-connection, even though I did not come from Kenya, but I have roots in Kenya, and even if that frame that the connection was built through was colonialism.”

It made me think about what it would be like for someone like myself to travel to the ancestral homes of my people. Well, this is my home. Certainly, more than it is your home, and in this era of truth and reconciliation, it is now both my home as much as it is your home. I come from no other place in the world than from right here, diitiidʔaaʔtx̣ – Ditidaht, we are the Nuuchahnulth and the seas for miles of shoreline and all of the land on the western side of our Vancouver Island home, from Point No Point in the south to Brooks Peninsula in the north, is Nuuchahnulth territory, our haahuulthii.

In the conclusion of that episode with W. Kamau Bell in Parts Unknown, Tony narrates an epilogue, “Who gets to tell the stories? This is a question asked often. The answer in this case, for better or for worse, is I do, at least this time out. I do my best, I look, I listen, but in the end, I know it’s my story. Not Kamau’s, not Kenya’s, or Kenyans’. Those stories are yet to be heard.”

It’s important for colonial settlers, and for new settlers, to Canada to consider who you are and where you come from, and what it means to live in British Columbia, and to think about your own frame of reference as being truly Canadian, even if that frame that the connection was built through was colonialism. The context, the narrative, the history, the good or bad of it, the story of what it means to be Canadian is apart and a part of your individual and shared story as a British Columbian, as a Canadian, as an unwelcomed or welcomed colonial settler, and as a new settler. The stories that have yet to be heard, and are now starting in some ways to be told, is our story, my story, of what it means to be diitiidʔaaʔtx̣, to be Nuuchahnulth, to be First Nations, to be Indigenous, and to also be Canadian in this country and in this province.

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a unique opportunity to bridge the divide of our individual and collective stories, our distinct and shared experiences, and our united effort to right and write a new history chaptered with the stories of a sincere determination to tell the truths of the past, to reaffirm and renew our commitments to reconcile all things oppressive, racist and insufferable, and to create an honest and just redress for all Indigenous – First Nations, Inuit, Métis – peoples. It would be momentous to proclaim someday that we all come from a country in which the frame that the connection was built through was equality, acceptance and compassion.

It’s fair to ask, “What will you do between October 1st, 2022 and September 29th, 2023, to recognize your part in this history, this story, and what will you actively do to shift the narrative?” We’re at an urgent time in our country’s history to thoughtfully and actively explore all parts known and unknown in our ongoing journey to come to terms with each other and with our past, and with the present day. I look forward to the work ahead this year, and I’ll look forward to us hearing each other’s stories next year and in the many years to come.

With Respect,

Derek Thompson – Thlaapkiituup
Indigenous Initiatives Advisor, Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

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“The time to make things happen is now. The time to seek out our individual and shared power is now.”

Read the Message from the Indigenous Initiatives Advisor, Derek Thompson – Thlaapkiituup, here

Discover REDI’s Indigenous-Specific Resources here

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Unpacking Polarities, Diversity Meets Reality: Grappling with the Hard Edges of Inclusive Clinical Teaching

Unpacking Polarities, Diversity Meets Reality: Grappling with the Hard Edges of Inclusive Clinical Teaching

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4 Steps to Help Deepen Awareness of Bias

Research Voices from the Field with Danièle Behn Smith, Jessica Chenery, Naomi Dove & Kate Jongbloed

Research Voices from the Field is a new feature that showcases cutting-edge research that breaks barriers and promotes inclusion in medicine. Each edition spotlights a research publication and includes insights directly from the authors—revealing their motivations, the significance of their findings, and why the research matters for healthcare professionals everywhere.

In this edition, Danièle Behn Smith, Jessica Chenery, Naomi Dove & Kate Jongbloed  reflect on their article book “Using a metaphor of baskets and copper pots to identify “what work, whose work” in truth, rights, responsibilities, and reconciliation in public health” and its relevance to any settler seeking to take up their role and responsibility in reconciliation.

Basket & Copper Pot

Origin Story of the Basket & Copper Pot Metaphor

In 2022, the U&U team was invited by Jess and Naomi to present to BCCDC Leadership. Beforehand, we discussed a tension they faced: Chee Mamuk is a community serving, Indigenous-led public health program. Release of the In Plain Sight report resulted in skyrocketing requests for Chee Mamuk to advise on BCCDC’s other programs. While awesome that settler colleagues were committed to addressing Indigenous-specific racism, the avalanche of requests pulled Chee Mamuk away from their community-facing work. It also created stress for Indigenous staff with lived experience of Indigenous-specific racism who had not opted in to Indigenous-specific anti-racism diagnostic work when they accepted their roles at BCCDC.

Meanwhile, Danièle and Kate had been having a similar conversation: talking about how Danièle’s job title – Deputy Provincial Health Officer Indigenous Health – didn’t reflect all the time she was spending on helping settlers “fix themselves” and leading Indigenous-specific anti-racist transformation. We kept referring to “two different buckets of work.” 

As Kate was preparing slides for the BCCDC talk, her dad arrived from Holland with the copper pot that was her inheritance following her Oma’s death. The conversations we’d been having clicked and the basket/copper pot metaphor was born. After the presentation and those that followed, we heard from many settler colleagues that the metaphor helped them to have an “ah ha” moment and see their role in reconciliation.

Adding to the metaphor

In 2024, BCCDC hired its first ever Executive Director of Indigenous Health, held by Janene Erickson (Nak’azdli Whut’en). Janene brings her lived experience as a BC First Nations Woman along with her MPH from UBC SPPH, where she now teaches about Indigenous-specific racism and its impacts on health.

Janene differentiates Chee Mamuk’s “Basket Work” from her role as a “Copper Pot Coach.” A “Copper Pot Coach” is an Indigenous person who has agreed to work closely with settlers as they strengthen their capacity to identify and eradicate Indigenous-specific racism. What’s important is that Indigenous colleagues (and teams) determine for themselves if and how they engage with either these types of work, or neither.

Coming together to write the article

We wrote the paper, published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health, because we were excited to share our experience as two “duos” – each made up of an Indigenous person (basket knowledge) and Settler person (copper pot responsibility). We also realized that our duos were in relationship in ways that reflected our emerging metaphor: Jess and Naomi were leading a team with a “basket work” mandate. Danièle and Kate were leading a “copper pot” project. We were able to work together to shift some of the copper pot burden off the shoulders of those focused on basket work.

For Chee Mamuk, copper pot work was never part of their mandate, but it got added on to their already full plate following the In Plain Sight report. We wanted to share our insights to help give language to conversations about “what work, whose work” in Indigenous rights, truth, and reconciliation that are being navigated across the country.

Kate JongbloedDanièle Behn Smith

Danièle Behn Smith,
Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Indigenous Health

Dr. Behn Smith is Métis from the Red River Valley and Eh Cho Dene from Fort Nelson First Nation. She has the honour and privilege of working as BC’s Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Indigenous Health. She works alongside Dr. Bonnie Henry and other team members at the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer to uphold the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples, unlearn and undo systemic white supremacy and racism and advance true reconciliation.

Naomi Dove

Jessica Chenery
Director, Chee Mamuk, BC Centre for Disease Control

Indigenous ancestry is Coast Salish on Vancouver Island- Shíshálh and Penelakut First Nations as well as Portuguese and Scottish ancestry.  Jessica enjoys her work as the Director of Chee Mamuk (‘New Work’ in Chinook jargon), a self-determining Indigenous-led program within the BC Centre for Disease Control.

Jessica Chenery

Naomi Dove
Medical Lead, Chee Mamuk, BC Centre for Disease Control

Dr. Naomi Dove is a settler of British and Newfoundland descent raised on the territory of the Anishinaabe and Métis people of Treaty Three and Treaty 3 Adhesion in Northwestern Ontario. She is honoured and grateful to be invited in as a guest to work with the Chee Mamuk team as Medical Lead. 

Kate Jongbloed

Kate Jongbloed
Senior Scientist, U&U lab, BC Centre for Disease Control

I am a white occupier living on the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I am an epidemiologist and mixed methods health researcher with 15+ years of experience documenting and responding to the impacts of settler colonialism on health and wellness. Recently, I completed a two-year CIHR Health Systems Impact Post-Doctoral Fellowship mentored by Dr. Danièle Behn Smith in the BC Office of the Provincial Health Officer. Now, I am a Senior Scientist at the BC Centre for Disease Control working to grow an “unlearning and undoing white supremacy and Indigenous specific racism lab” (U&U Lab) for population and public health in BC. Two of my other roles are Adjunct Professor at University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy and Associate with Qoqoq Consulting Ltd.

Using a metaphor of baskets and copper pots to identify “what work, whose work” in truth, rights, responsibilities, and reconciliation in public health

Authors: Danièle Behn Smith, Jessica Chenery, Naomi Dove & Kate Jongbloed 

Abstract

Ten years since the Truth & Reconciliation Commission Report, Canadian institutions—including public health systems—have yet to advance the Calls to Action in a sustained, transformative way. As public health leaders in the territory now known as British Columbia, we witness tension as colleagues grapple with, “What is the work of Truth & Reconciliation? Whose work is it?”. Too often, truth and reconciliation is delegated to a small Indigenous team (or, individual) dangling, isolated off the side of an organizational chart. We offer a metaphor highlighting two interconnected, but distinct areas of work to advance truth and reconciliation in public health. One is the work of reclaiming and resurgence of languages, culture, medicines, and connection to territory, undertaken by and for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. The other is eradicating Indigenous-specific racism and white supremacy to advance cultural safety. It is not up to Indigenous people to eradicate racism; as it is constructed, maintained, and perpetuated by settlers, settlers are those with the power to eradicate it. As we move towards the anniversary of the TRC, we share a metaphor that helps our settler colleagues understand and claim their responsibility in truth, rights, and reconciliation in public health.



Have you’ve published or come across valuable research on the praxis of REDI in medicine? Share it today.

We especially welcome submissions of research articles that explore equity, diversity, inclusion, justice, decolonization, Indigenization, or trauma-informed practices in medicine and healthcare.

Digest Guides: Indigenous Speakers Series conversation with Joanne Mills

Farewell Saleem Razack, Senior Faculty Advisor, REDI Office

Farewell Saleem Razack, Senior Faculty Advisor, REDI Office

We would like to congratulate Saleem Razack on his new role as Dean of Medicine at Dalhousie University. As he prepares to step into this position, Saleem will be moving on from his role as Senior Faculty Advisor in the Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) in June. 

In his time with REDI, Saleem has played a vital role in shaping the Faculty’s approach to anti-racism and equity. As Senior Faculty Advisor, he has provided strategic guidance on the implementation of a comprehensive anti-racism plan, helping to ground this work in both strong theory and lived realities within clinical and educational settings. He engaged in conflict transformation by bringing a trauma-informed lens to difficult conversations and thoughtfully holding complex polarities. He has consistently worked to support and contribute to a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive community across the Faculty of Medicine and its affiliated sites. 

Saleem served as a moderator and speaker at many REDI events, including Inclusive Professionalism in Medicine; Moving from Harm to Healing in EDI, Medical Education, and Clinical Practice; Managing Fragility and Saviourism Reactions in EDI work; and Gender-affirming Care in Action: Stories and Insights from the Frontline. He hosted the thought-provoking Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada podcast series, Equity on Life Support, and was a driving force behind many REDI resources, including the Writing Inclusive Case Studies tip sheet. Throughout his work, Saleem brought a strong ability to translate equity, diversity, and inclusion concepts into meaningful and practical applications within medical education, helping bridge the clinical and academic dimensions of medicine

Saleem joined UBC and BC Children’s Hospital in January 2023 following a distinguished 25-year career at McGill University as a pediatric intensivist, medical educator, and education researcher. A graduate of the University of Toronto, his research has focused on the intersections of assessment, professionalism, and equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism, supported by SSHRC and CIHR. His many recognitions include the AFMC President’s Award for Exemplary National Leadership in Academic Medicine, the AFMC May Cohen Award for outstanding contributions to equity in medical education, the Haile T. Debas Award at McGill, and the Pediatric Chairs of Canada Award for outstanding contribution to medical education. 

Beyond his accomplishments, Saleem brings a rare depth of understanding to equity and anti-oppression work. He has an exceptional ability to engage with the perspectives of people from historically, systemically, and persistently marginalized groups, informed by his own intersectional experiences and a deep commitment to justice. His thinking is nuanced and systems-oriented, with a strong ability to examine power, structures, and the broader context shaping health and education. 

Saleem has been an invaluable bridge between REDI and the clinical environment, helping to ensure that our work is relevant and grounded for clinicians, learners, and leaders. His insights have strengthened our ability to design content, sessions, and initiatives that resonate in practice. 

As an educator, Saleem is engaging, thoughtful, and often brings humour and candour into complex conversations. He has a gift for making difficult topics accessible while maintaining their depth and importance. His observations, rooted in lived experience and deep scholarship, have encouraged more critical and intentional approaches to this work. 

As a leader and colleague, Saleem is known by his colleagues for his humility, compassion, and courage. He approaches others with care, creating space for honest dialogue while supporting learners, faculty, and leaders to grow. He is a trusted mentor and coach, with many learners attesting to his encouragement and steady support. He brings a thoughtful balance, knowing when to slow down and listen and when to move work forward with clarity and purpose. 

Saleem also uses his position and influence to advocate for others, often acting as a source of support for those navigating complex systems. His willingness to speak openly, to challenge, and to lead with integrity has had a lasting impact on our community. 

Saleem’s contributions to REDI and the Faculty of Medicine have been significant. He will be greatly missed, and we are deeply grateful for all that he has shared with us. We wish him every success in his new role. 

REDI Deep Dives: Unpacking Polarities; Diversity Meets Reality (Facilitation Guide)

REDI Deep Dives: Unpacking Polarities; Diversity Meets Reality (Slide deck)

On His Lonely Way Back Home: A Tribute to Dr. Shane Pointe

On His Lonely Way Back Home: A Tribute to Dr. Shane Pointe

Written by Derek K Thompson – Čaabať Bookwilla | Suhiltun, Director, Indigenous Engagement, Faculty of Medicine

On September 23rd, 2025, I was honoured to welcome Dr. David Suzuki and Dr. Shane Pointe to the Indigenous Speakers Series – The Nature of All Things Indigenous. An important aspect of the day was to honour and acknowledge the great good work of my uncle, Dr. Shane Pointe, who was the inaugural recipient of the Honorary Doctorate of Original Laws from the Native Education College.

We spent the morning in ceremony, and with the strength of our Ancestors I claimed my Uncle into my Tluukwaana— sacred society of supernatural wolves, I wrapped him in a ceremonial shawl and crowned him with a chiefly cedar-woven hat, and as my Auntie Mary and my sister Ida stood at his side my brothers, Bobby and Jack, and I sang my most chiefly song intended to invoke legendary and mighty sea serpents. The ceremony was full of wonder, beauty, significance, and purpose, and we all witnessed the power of our culture existing simultaneously in earthly and spiritual realms. My Uncle Shane spent his life, in every word and small action, to lead people on a journey of seeking truth, defining identity, reconciling for the future, and a determination for our people to live happy and meaningful lives. He worked in colonial spaces that simultaneously harmed and harms Indigenous people, but also in spaces that want to do right by our people. I was in awe of how he negotiated this paradox.

There’s not much more that can be said about my Uncle Shane that hasn’t been mentioned about his generosity, curiosity, humor, and his great love for people. He worked most of his life in service to people, helping people, uplifting people, uniting people, caring for people, and always with an intensity of compassion. My Uncle was funny and he liked to have fun, he was clever, and in many ways like a Raven – Qu?ušin would be in our oldest known Nuuchahnulth fables that often characterized the clarity and ambiguity of being human. He truly was, as the song goes, a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction, and takin’ every wrong direction on his lonely way back home.

I hold dearly and near to my heart a memory of my Uncle Shane talking with my late Mom as she was coming to terms with her own passing. He made a commitment to her to always support me in my chiefly role and that he would honour her by standing beside me and advising me to the best of his ability. They talked to each other with sincerity, love, and amidst profound sadness he would make her laugh and smile adding, “I’ll make sure that he behaves himself.” It was the last time they would see each other, and the last time we would all see my beautiful and brilliant Mom.

It feels as though the very foundations that held me up my entire life have faded away. I know that I am by every measure the person I am today because of my Uncle Shane, and I am anchored to all that is good and decent because of my Mom, Maude Thompson (nee Shaw)

I am filled with, I don’t know, I suppose I am feeling alone and lonely now that my Uncle Shane is gone, I suppose I feel empty. I don’t know what or how to feel, and in many ways I am still coming to terms with the loss of my Mom. It feels as though the very foundations that held me up my entire life have faded away. I know that I am by every measure the person I am today because of my Uncle Shane, and I am anchored to all that is good and decent because of my Mom, Maude Thompson (nee Shaw). I will call on them with my most sacred prayer chants and I will ask them to come and be with me, to dignify me with their spirits, and to always guide me with their love and devotion.

When my Mom was passing she said to us that we always need to be good to each other, and she repeated those words as she was fading away, always be good to each other. At the conclusion of the session on September 23rd, my Uncle Shane said that we need to learn how to love each other and we need to teach our grandchildren how to love and accept each other. There is greatness discovered in this simple advice and to experience profound truth in being good to each other, in loving each other, and in teaching our descendants to love and accept each other.

Research Voices from the Field with Maï Yasué

Research Voices from the Field with Maï Yasué

Research Voices from the Field showcases cutting-edge research that breaks barriers and promotes inclusion in medicine. Each edition spotlights a research publication and includes insights directly from the authors—revealing their motivations, the significance of their findings, and why the research matters for healthcare professionals everywhere.

In this edition, Maï Yasué, incoming Assistant Dean of Equity and Social Accountability at Simon Fraser’s new School of Medicine and former Associate Director of the Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Office in the UBC Faculty of Medicine, reflects on why she co-authored “Embedding equity and inclusion in universities through motivational theory and community-based conservation approaches,” an article that brings an interdisciplinary, evidence-informed lens to advancing meaningful and sustained justice, equity, decolonization, Indigenization, and inclusion (JEDII) change in academic medicine.

Maï Yasué

In this edition, Maï Yasué, incoming Assistant Dean of Equity and Social Accountability at Simon Fraser’s new School of Medicine and former Associate Director of the Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) Office in the UBC Faculty of Medicine, reflects on why she co-authored “Embedding equity and inclusion in universities through motivational theory and community-based conservation approaches,” an article that brings an interdisciplinary, evidence-informed lens to advancing meaningful and sustained justice, equity, decolonization, Indigenization, and inclusion (JEDII) change in academic medicine.

Read Maï Yasué‘s bio

Maï is the incoming Assistant Dean of Equity and Social Accountability at Simon Fraser’s new School of Medicine. She is the former Associate Director of the Office of Respectful Environments, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) in the UBC Faculty of Medicine. During that role, she provided leadership to the REDI team in the development and delivery of our education and training programming. She collaborated with leaders in departments, centres, and administration units, and staff, and faculty to identify institutional and individual barriers to inclusion and to foster long-term socio-cultural change towards justice, equity, decolonization, indigenization, and inclusion (JEDII). Previously, she worked at the Equity & Inclusion Office at UBC, where she led initiatives such as the JEDII STEM Series and the IBPOC STEM Network and supported the integration of the JEDII principles into teaching, research, and faculty and staff recruitment. Prior to her work at UBC, she was a faculty member at Quest University Canada for over a decade, teaching interdisciplinary courses in conservation and geography and advocating for transparency, equity, and inclusion through various leadership roles.

Maï, a second-generation immigrant from Japan, holds an MSc in Zoology from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Geography from the University of Victoria. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she has published over 40 articles in academic fields such as conservation, geography, zoology, education, behavioral ecology, economics, and psychology. She is grateful for having spent most of her life on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Stó:lō Nations.

Read our Farewell Message to Maï Yasué.

My path into this work began as a faculty member in a small, start-up university, where I experienced firsthand how institutional structures shape people’s experiences of equity or exclusion. In 15-student classes and a highly relational environment, I had opportunities to listen closely to students and colleagues with different lived experiences and to collaborate with others to create changes in admissions, financial aid, curriculum, and faculty evaluation. This context made one thing clear: lasting change is not driven by policies alone, but by relationships, shared purpose, and values-aligned engagement.

At the same time, my research in community-based conservation was grappling with similar challenges, particularly how to work with rural fishing, forestry, and farming communities to advance more just and effective environmental outcomes. A key lesson from that work was this: people who appear resistant are not uncaring. Rather, they hold values, constraints, and perspectives that must be understood and engaged. Progress depends on connecting with those intrinsic values, not trying to override them through pressure or oversimplifying their complex needs and identities.

Why it matters for medicine

In large, complex systems like academic medicine, equity work is often approached through incentives, compliance, or accountability measures. While these may have a role, they are not sufficient for deep cultural change and can sometimes undermine it.

This research invites a shift from asking how to get people to comply to asking how to create the conditions where people are internally motivated to engage and flourish. This includes building institutional capacity to listen to diverse perspectives, fostering trust, and co-developing solutions that are responsive to context. It also means providing mentorship and resources that meet people’s needs in ways that are timely and practical.

Finally, this work highlights the importance of drawing more intentionally on social science evidence. Medicine is deeply evidence-driven in clinical contexts, yet approaches to cultural and institutional change do not always reflect the same rigour. Without a strong evidence-based foundation, JEDII efforts risk losing focus and effectiveness. While JEDII is still an emerging field, an interdisciplinary approach allows us to draw on decades of research on motivation, learning, and social change. Much like farmers, fishers, and foresters, health professionals are incredibly busy. Supporting change in these contexts requires JEDII practitioners to act as translators and synthesizers of the best available evidence to design approaches that are both effective and feasible.

In many ways, this article reflects and validates the approach REDI has taken in the Faculty of Medicine. It provided an opportunity to synthesize, test, and peer review a set of practices grounded in motivation, relationships, and context. The article has been presented at an international conference, as well as in talks outside the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.

This work is also the product of interdisciplinary collaboration across different moments in my career. My co-authors include leading self-determination theory researchers Netta Weinstein and Nicole Legate; award-winning STEM educator and climate scientist and former Associate Dean Academic within the Faculty of Science at UBC, Sara Harris; higher education and EDI leader I-Chant Chiang; conflict transformation leader Ashley Moore; and Nadia Joe (Gä̀gala-ƛ̓iƛ̓ətko), an environmental professional advancing Indigenous community rights and practices on the land. Together, these perspectives made it possible to draw connections across fields that are not often in conversation.

Key Takeaways:

  • Sustainable JEDII change is driven by autonomous motivation, not rewards or punishment.
  • People who seem resistant are not disengaged; they need to be engaged through their intrinsic values.
  • Relationships, listening, and trust are foundational to meaningful institutional change.
  • Equity efforts are more effective when grounded in interdisciplinary, evidence-informed approaches to social change.

Embedding equity and inclusion in universities through motivational theory and community-based conservation approaches

Authors: Maï Yasué, Netta Weinstein, Sara E. Harris, I-Chant A. Chiang, Nicole Legate, Ashley J. Moore, Nadia Joe (Gä̀gala-ƛ̓iƛ̓ətko)

Abstract

Despite widespread plans to embed justice, equity, decolonization, indigenization, and inclusion (JEDII) into universities, progress toward deeper, systemic change is slow. Given that many community-based conservation (CBC) scholars have experience creating enduring social change in diverse communities, they have transferable skills that could help embed JEDII in universities. We synthesized the literature from CBC and examined it through the lens of self-determination theory to help identify generalizable approaches to create resilient sociocultural change toward JEDII in universities. Fostering autonomous motivation (i.e., behaving because one truly values and identifies with the behavior or finds behavior inherently satisfying) is critical to inspiring enduring change in both CBC and JEDII. Based on theory and our examination of CBC, we provide 5 broad recommendations that helped motivate behavioral change in a way that was self-sustained (i.e., even without external rewards or pressure). Guiding principles support autonomy by creating meaningful choice and different entry points for JEDII; prioritising relationships; designing payment programs that enhance autonomous motivation; developing meaningful educational opportunities that are relevant, timely, relational, and authentic; and creating institutional change by focusing efforts on critical moments.

Have you’ve published or come across valuable research on the praxis of REDI in medicine? Share it today.

We especially welcome submissions of research articles that explore equity, diversity, inclusion, justice, decolonization, Indigenization, or trauma-informed practices in medicine and healthcare.