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Indigenous Peoples & Genomics: Starting a Conversation

By November 16, 2018No Comments

A new medical test called genomic sequencing is a powerful way to test for many medical conditions, but it sometimes doesn’t work as well for some ancestral groups, including Indigenous Peoples. This project held four sharing circle focus groups about this issue with 30 Indigenous participants in the Vancouver, BC area. This video summarizes the issue of inequity in genomic healthcare for Indigenous Peoples and the views the participants shared with us about the issue and possible solutions.

Each participant was able to choose how they would like to be identified in the video. Some used pseudonyms instead of real names, some included their Nation with their name or pseudonym, and others chose to have their photo included. Some quotes were re-recorded by voiceover actors if participants didn’t want their own voices used.

Another group of researchers has begun work on a new project to address this issue. It is called Silent Genomes, and you can read about it here: cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/silent-genome-project-unbc-1.4501167