Dr. Janet Smylie, left, presented findings of the Indigenous Children’s Health Report:
Health Assessment in Action at the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO)
March 30, 2009. Dr. Smylie is pictured here with NAHO CEO Dr. Paulette C. Tremblay.
(National Aboriginal Health Organization photograph)
Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) citizen, Dr. Janet Smylie will receive a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in Vancouver on February 24, 2012. Dr. Smylie is one of the first Métis doctors in Canada and has partnered with the MNO on three health research projects. Her work with the MNO included the Indigenous Knowledge Translation: Baseline Findings in a Qualitative Study of the Pathways of Health Knowledge in Three Indigenous Communities in Canada (which included work with the Ottawa Métis Council); Indigenous Knowledge Networks for Infant, Child and Family Health; and Our Health Counts.
An expert in the field of Indigenous health, Dr. Smylie has practiced and taught in urban, rural, and remote communities. She began her career at the Ottawa General Hospital as a family medicine resident and in 1996 went on to be a physician with Anishnawbe Health in Toronto.
Internationally, she has worked with public health researchers in New Zealand, Australia and the United States to study and improve health systems for Indigenous populations. A past director of the Indigenous Peoples Health Research Centre in Saskatchewan and past associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan, she continues to practice medicine at the Seven Generations Midwives of Toronto. She is also a research scientist at Saint Michael’s Hospital Centre for Research on inner city health as well as an associate public health sciences professor at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Smylie continues her work with communities across Canada in order to advance and design the delivery of health to Indigenous peoples.
The 2012 National Aboriginal Achievement Award recipients’ list includes two other outstanding Métis Nation citizens. These are Senator Gerry St. Germain from Manitoba, who was the first self-identified Métis person to serve in Canada’s federal cabinet and Candace Sutherland, also from Manitoba, who will receive the Youth Award.
For more a complete list of winners and more information about the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards visit the web site below.