Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on Pink Shirt Day, as this year's Black History Month comes to an end, to speak to the government's cultural safety and strategy. Safety certainly is a spectrum, Mr. Speaker. There are many obvious ways we must keep ourselves and each other safe from mental harm and physical harm every day. Cultural safety and traumainformed approaches, particularly outlined in the Department of Health and Social Services's cultural safety action plan, is creating a space where Indigenous peoples feel safe and respected, free of racism and discrimination. Of course, in the spirit of solidarity and with the nature of systemic racism being what it is, these are values we obviously want to uphold for every racialized community and marginalized culture as we should not tolerate or perpetuate racism or bigotry of any kind. The imperative behind the Department of Health and Social Services establishing cultural safety strategies, specifically to create safer spaces for Indigenous communities, is, as we all know, because our governing institutions and the services they provided were not initially created to be safe for Indigenous people at all. In fact, quite the contrary. The delivery of health and social services in its various forms throughout the history of Canada was used to perpetuate colonialism and assimilate Indigenous peoples.
Indigenous people still struggle with the effects of these policies and the racist culture that persisted in health care to this day. There is a deep mistrust built into the system, and we need to rebuild that trust and tear down those colonial attitudes so that health care and social services can be delivered safely and effectively to Indigenous peoples in ways that respect their cultures and traditions.
Mr. Speaker, this mistrust extends beyond our health and social services. The legacy of colonialism persists across the GNWT. We need to extend cultural safety and traumainformed approaches to public policy beyond health care to every department and agency. We need a wholeofgovernment approach from the executive to make this happen. The GNWT sees a future where it's not a colonial government, and the previous government took some major steps in that direction. I encourage this new government to keep moving in the right direction. Let's make the GNWT a responsible, safe government for all Indigenous peoples, and all racialized peoples, so we can work closer together as a territory united in a vision of equality, justice, and prosperity for all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from the Sahtu.
