“It stayed with me”: Study highlights lasting impact of Indigenous Teaching Through Art program

A new study from McMaster University’s Department of Family Medicine (DFM) shows how an innovative, experiential, art-based education program is helping faculty, clinicians, and staff better understand the lasting impacts of Canada’s residential school system and their role in reconciliation. 

Published in Medical Humanities on June 5, the research explores the Indigenous Teaching Through Art (ITTA) program offered by DFM to address gaps in knowledge about historical injustices experienced by Indigenous Peoples in Canada, particularly related to the residential school system. 

The ITTA program takes participants out of traditional workplace settings and into an immersive, place-based learning environment. Between 2018 and 2019, 195 members of DFM participated in the program, and 36 faculty and staff participated in interviews and focus groups. 

Participants visit the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, located on the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School, one of the longest-running residential schools in Canada. There, they engage with storytelling, art-making, and reflective exercises intended to create an opportunity to “walk alongside” each other, establishing a foundation for an equal and collaborative understanding, and signal a commitment to healing and strengthening relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples. 

“The program was designed to connect “the head to the heart,” helping participants move beyond facts toward deeper understanding and empathy,” says Lorrie Gallant, Indigenous artist, facilitator, DFM adjunct lecturer, and co-author.  

ITTA is also shaped by the Two Row Wampum agreement, a Haudenosaunee principle of a parallel path of peace, friendship, and mutual respect. This concept guides the program’s emphasis on engaging with Indigenous perspectives collaboratively while respecting diverse ways of knowing and fostering relationships rooted in reciprocity and respect. 

A key feature of the study is its use of Two-Eyed Seeing in the analysis, an approach that brings together Indigenous and Western ways of knowing. 

“Two-Eyed Seeing guided both the program and our analysis,” says Laura Cleghorn, co-author and Research Managing Director at DFM. “It was essential in helping us understand participants’ experiences in a way that respected multiple perspectives.” 

From analysis of interviews and focus groups with participants, four themes emerged: experiencing, reflecting, meaning-making and acting which fall directly in line with experiential Indigenous learning cycle described by Battiste (2002).   

“These stages show that learning is not just about absorbing information,” says Joyce Zazulak, co-author and professor emeritus at DFM. “It’s about how people process that information emotionally and relationally, and how it influences what they do next.” 

Participants moved through these stages in different ways. “We found that people entered the program at different points,” Zazulak explains. “Some were encountering this history for the first time, while others were building on prior knowledge.”  

Nicole Knibb, co-author, DFM adjunct assistant clinical professor, and Senior Educator, Academic and Professional Engagement with the McMaster Museum of Art, highlights the importance of creativity in this process. 

“Art creates space for reflection,” she says. “It allows people to engage with difficult truths in ways that are personal and meaningful, rather than purely academic.” 

The study found that the program helped increase awareness of the ongoing impacts of residential schools and prompted participants to reflect on their own individual responsibilities, with many participants considering how their learning could influence their work as clinicians, educators, and staff and how to provide more equitable, and culturally appropriate care, education and service for Indigenous peoples.  

The program’s broader aim is to support more culturally appropriate care by increasing understanding of the root causes of health inequities experienced by Indigenous Peoples. The program continues to be offered once per year for all new faculty members and staff who join the department.  

For many participants, the experience had a lasting effect, captured in the study’s title: “It stayed with me.” 

“When learning is grounded in place, story, and relationship, it stays with people,” says Gallant. “And that’s what creates the potential for meaningful change.” 

As healthcare systems across Canada continue to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action, the study highlights how education, when designed with intention and respect, can play a crucial role in moving from awareness to action.