´şÉ«Ö±˛Ą

Pearl Yellow Old Woman was told an effective way to get health-care services for her disabled child would be to surrender her to child welfare.

That was in 1999. Pearl, now a PhD student at the University of Calgary, was a teen mom living in a First Nations community, where jurisdictional boundaries prevented her from accessing services that her child desperately required. Pearl believes financial disputes between the provincial and federal governments created barriers for accessibility. Treatment for her daughter was considered a federal responsibility. She had to find specialized help on the reserve, where Pearl says services were few and far between.

“That experience has led me on a journey of critically asking why our Indigenous children are not receiving the same health care as the rest of Canadians.”

When her daughter was 12, Pearl made the difficult choice to leave her close-knit community and home of Siksika Nation to find enhanced health care for her daughter, who has autism and complex health needs, including diabetes. However, Pearl’s expectation of improved care did not materialize right away.

“She ended up being on a cocktail of over 10 different medications. My little girl who used to smile all the time turned into a person who sat in a wheelchair drooling,” remembers Pearl. “At that point I realized, the only person that’s going to advocate for her, is me. She’s the guiding force for this journey that I’m on.”

While caring for her daughter, Pearl started to take courses at UCalgary, completing a Bachelor of Arts in 2002, and a Bachelor of Education in 2006. She began teaching special education in provincial and federal school systems. She taught in various Indigenous communities. “That’s where I really started to see the inequitable services and funding in all areas of service that the children needed. I was left with so many questions â€” so I went back to school and graduated in 2008 with a Master of Education in community rehabilitation and disability studies. When I took that degree I was open to finding answers to alternative ways to provide program and policy that would work for our Indigenous children.”

Now, as a PhD student at the Cumming School of Medicine, Pearl hopes her research and work in the community can provide a transformative contribution of what Indigenous knowledge can offer. “My vision would be to work with the communities and perhaps conceptualize a health model that is informed by traditional knowledge and ways of knowing and an Indigenous parent's perspective.”

Pearl’s daughter is now 24. She is living in an assisted living home with roommates and staff. She’s happily participating in community activities such as music and art classes and is smiling again.

“She’s thriving and that’s what matters. I’m hoping by sharing my story, other Indigenous parents who are going through this experience can share their stories, and in doing so, my hope is that health policy will be able to create holistic and culturally competent care when serving the needs of Indigenous children with disabilities.”

Pearl Yellow Old Woman recently joined the  (AIM-HI Network) at the University of Calgary. The AIM-HI Network, co-launched by Dr. Cheryl Barnabe of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health, is part of a nationwide effort to increase the ranks of First Nation, Inuit and MĂ©tis scholars by providing new and expanded opportunities for mentees to succeed in health research careers.

´şÉ«Ö±˛Ą unveiled its Indigenous Strategy, , on Nov. 16, 2017. The strategy is the result of nearly two years of community dialogue and campus engagement, and involved the work of a number of people from the university, Indigenous communities and community stakeholders. Recommendations from the strategy are being implemented as we move forward with promise, hope and caring for the future.