Public Health in Canada: Shaping the Future Together 
Canadian Public Health Association Conference - Toronto: June 13-16, 2010

First Nations, Inuit and Métis health was a key priority topic at Canada's largest public health forum for public health professionals, researchers, policy-makers, academics and students from across the country and around the world.  Eight sessions and nearly 40 presentations in the program addressed a wide variety of issues related to Aboriginal Health in Canada, from rural and urban Inuit communities preparing for the H1N1 pandemic to strategies for addressing chronic disease, HIV/AIDS, and mental health.  For a full list of presentations, and links to presentation abstracts, please visit:

• CPHA sessions on First Nations, Inuit and Métis public health 

In a session addressing 'Equitable Public Engagement,' Dr. Malcolm King, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health, highlighted strategies that emphasized the role of First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities in meaningful health research.  View his presentation:

• Community-based Intervention Research as a Pathway to Health Equity for First Nations, Inuit and Métis (pdf: 3.2m)

The NCCAH facilitated a session on "Social Determinants of Health from a First Nations, Inuit and Métis Perspective" featuring presentations on gender and women's health in relation to First Nations communities; early child development from a Métis perspective; and the envrionment and nutrition security from the perspective of the Inuit. In each case, the strengths and challenges of working within a social determinants of health framework was explored. 

• Social Determinants of Aboriginal Health: the Case of Aboriginal Women and HIV/AIDS (pdf: 713 k) - Charolotte Reading, PhD, School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victoria.
• Pressing Environmental Health Boundaries  (pdf: 752k) - Katherine Minich, MHSc, Chair, Inuit Tuttarvingat of the National Aboriginal Health Organization.
• Kokum Knows: Assessing and Responding to the Social Determinants of Indigenous Children's Health (pdf: 878k) - Jane Smylie, MD, CCFP, MPH, Research Scientist, Centre for Research on Inner City Health, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto. Associate Pressor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto.