Health care inequities for Aboriginal womenThere were 1.1 million Aboriginal people living in Canada in 1996, and 408,100 of them were they are women (Statistics Canada, 2000; Dion Stout et al, 2001). More than half live in urban centers and two-thirds of them reside in Western Canada (Hanselmann, 2001). Vancouver has 28,000 Aboriginal people, or 7% of the population (Joseph, 1999). Of this total population, 70% live in the poorest neighborhood in Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside (DTES). Health care inequities can be elucidated through research that identifies social, economic, and political ideologies that reflect aspects of cultural safety (Crandon, 1986; O'Neil, 1989 cited in Browne and Fiske, 2001). Various factors influence the mistreatment of Indigenous people when accessing health care in local health facilities such as hospitals and clinics. Aboriginal women face many barriers and discrimination based on their visible minority status, such as race, gender and social class (Gerber, 1990; Dion Stout, 1996; Voyageur, 1996, cited in Browne and Fiske, 2001). A study of Aboriginal people in northern British Columbia found high rates of unemployment, underemployment, and welfare dependency (Browne & Fiske, 2001). This continued political and economic marginalization of indigenous peoples widens the gap between the colonizers and the colonized. The existence of racial profiling of Indigenous peoples based on "Indian status" often further fuels the stigmatization of these individuals, as other Canadians who do not see the benefits of compensation received with this status can often be angered by which they may perceive as another compensation granted to the natives. the peoples. Middle of paper ......their personal encounters with indigenous classmates they might have had in high school. Life experiences, parental upbringing, ethnic roots, social status, and education all shape nursing practices. Nurses and other health care professionals are trained in institutions that do not recognize the sociopolitical injustices that occur in health care settings. On top of that, through their experiences in their work and in their personal and community lives, they already have opinions about certain groups of people. “Cultural safety would encourage nurses to question popular notions of culture and cultural differences, to be more aware of dominant social assumptions that misrepresent certain people and groups, and to think critically about the broader social discourses that influence inevitably the perspectives and interpretative practices of nurses. » (Browne, 2009, p... 21).