Indigenous Approaches to FASD Prevention

The first goal of the TRC was to document the experiences of all survivors, families and communities personally affected by the Indian Residential Schools, including former students, their families, communities, the Churches, former school employees, government and other Canadians. [...] The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call-to-Action 33 focuses on FASD prevention and states: “We call upon the federal, provincial, and territorial governments to recognize as a high priority the need to address and prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and to develop, in collaboration with Aboriginal people, FASD preventive programs that can be delivered in a culturally appropriat [...] In the field of FASD prevention, researchers such as Caroline Tait and Amy Salmon have described how issues related to alcohol use, mothering and Indigenous women are often understood and how this influences policies, interventions, and approaches to addressing FASD in Indigenous communities.1-6 In the past, many FASD prevention approaches were guided by misconceptions including the idea that FASD [...] In response, many people involved in FASD prevention activities have started to use frameworks and approaches such as cultural safety, trauma-informed practice, and women-centred care that align with Indigenous values and worldviews and which support change and transformation in all systems of care, institutions and organizations. [...] It refers to learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing.