Acknowledgement of Territory

We would like to acknowledge the traditional territories of the Mississauga of the New Credit First Nation, Anishnawbe, Wendat, Huron, and Haudenosaunee Indigenous Peoples on which the Dalla Lana School of Public Health now stands.

The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We would also like to pay our respects to all our ancestors and to our present Elders.

WIIH Upcoming Events

View All

Archive of WBIIH Speaker Series 

Rewatch our Monthly Webinars Here:

November 2020-Kelly Gordon- Food: Revitalization, Reclamation and Reconciliation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C-yhuGNujE

January 2021- Dr. Michael Anderson & Mr. Leonard Benoit- Healing Medicine: Discovering Ceremony at the End of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FwDz0XYPsE&t=39s

February 2021- Mr. Ken Richard– The Sixties Scoop, 40 Years of Activism and Lessons Learned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku8DCJSLEKc

March 2021- Dr. Suzanne Shoush– Covid-19 Vaccination in Urban and Remote Indigenous Communities: https://youtu.be/AJ9S7-6O0ao

ON NEIHR and IMN-ON Fall Gathering Report 2020

Our Position Statements

  • COVID-19 Context
    Indigenous peoples are already highly marginalized within health and social services;
    COVID-19 will thus have a greater impact on these populations in these and other ways.
    Read our statement

Askaakamigokwewigamig (Mother Earth Teaching Lodge)

About the Lodge: 

Askaakamigokwewigamig (Ah-skaw-kom-ih-goh-kweh-whi-gah-mig) was raised on Oct 2, 2020 in the New College Quad behind Ivey Library on 20 Willcocks Street lead by Dr. Debby Wilson Danard, Traditional Knowledge Practitioner, Life Promotion Ambassador, and Provost Postdoctoral Fellow (2019-2021) along with her family (Cameron, Nelson, and Talyn Skye Bell) a dynamic group of faculty members (Maria Hupfield (UTM), Mikinaak Migwans (UTM), Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans (OISE), Nicole Latulippe (UTSC) and volunteers (Doug Anderson and son Nigel Anderson(Wemigwans), Ember Migwans, Dr. Bonnie McElhinny (Principal New College), and Jeff Monague (Park Manager, Springwater Provincial Park).

In response to the COVID pandemic, Askaakamigokwewigamig was built to ensure open air, physically distanced learning on the land while engaging Indigenous knowledge, teachings and ceremony as an essential aspect of continued learning.

Since that time, Askaakamigokwewigamig (the Lodge) has been maintained as a sovereign, self-governing space, by a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous faculty, staff, students, and volunteers with relationships across the tri-campus of the University of Toronto and in the wider community.

Through October 2020- April 2022 the Lodge had financial and administrative support by New College – University of Toronto – Women & Gender Studies Institute, and funding by The School of Cities inaugural Anti-Black Racism/Black Lives and Anti-Indigenous Racism/Indigenous Lives Funding Initiative (Dr. Debby Wilson-Danard, BEd, MEd, PhD; Dr. Jennifer Wemigwans, PhD; Mikayla Redden, MLIS, New College).

The primary Traditional Space Protocol for the Lodge is: No drugs, No alcohol, No Violence. Her continued presence acknowledges land, healing and reconciliation as the relationship for mobilizing health, strengthening mental health and well-being and life promotion for students, faculty, staff and community attending in-person at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus.

Following ceremony, in April 2022, Askaakamigokwewigamig will continue with financial and administration resources from Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health (WBIIH)

Respectfully, the student-centered Lodge is further supported with generous consideration and commitment to Indigenous education and mental health research by Associate Professor Dr. Suzanne Stewart who is the Director of WBIIH and Special Advisor the Dean on Aboriginal Education and the Chair of the Indigenous Education Network and Assistant Professor, Dr. Angela Mashford-Pringle who is the Associate Director of WBIIH, and recent University of Toronto Early Career Teaching Award (2022) recipient for leading U of T’s first land-based masters in public health – Indigenous health (MPH-IH) program and the collaborative specialization in Indigenous health (CSIH) program.

Donate now to the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health Fund

Our Programs

Master of Public Health (MPH) in Indigenous Health

Collaborative Specialization in Indigenous Health

Connect with Us

Twitter: @wbiih_

Instagram: @wbiih_

Facebook: Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health

Mailing list: Check back for updates. 

                                                                 Logo for Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health