Commercial Determinants and Indigenous Health Disparities: An Introduction

This lecture was delivered on March 16, 2023 as part of the Health Inc: Corporations, Capitalism, and the commercial determinants of health seminar series co-hosted by the Centre for Global Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto.
Overview:
Intertwined with colonialism and dispossession, Indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by the commercial determinants of health. Poor access to healthy foods, environmental degradation, inadequate access to healthcare, and targeted marketing are all likely to be greater felt by Indigenous individuals and communities. The activities of the tobacco, food and beverage, the infant formula industry, pharmaceutical, alcohol and gambling industries continue to play significant roles in shaping Indigenous health outcomes.
Dr. Amy Shawanda and Daniel Eisenkraft Klein recently wrote a paper on the topic, and are currently recording a podcast series on how commercial interests negatively impact Indigenous health, funded by Defining Moments Canada. They will provide a broad overview of how the CDOH impact Indigenous communities, with case studies of how these intertwine with broader political and structural forces.
Readings:
Crocetti AC, Cubillo (Larrakia) B, Lock (Ngiyampaa) M, et al. The commercial determinants of Indigenous health and well-being: a systematic scoping review. BMJ Global Health 2022;7:e010366.
Tomori, C., & Palmquist, A. E. L. (2022). Racial capitalism and the US formula shortage: A policy analysis of the formula industry as a neocolonial system. Frontiers in Sociology, 7.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Amy Shawanda is an Odawa Kwe and an Indigenous health researcher and a Provost Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Amy is born and raised in Wikwemikong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island. She has been immersed in Indigenous education formally since daycare to secondary then repositioned her strengths in Indigenous Knowledges in undergraduate and graduate schools. Amy has a background in Law and Justice and Indigenous Studies and her master’s in Indigenous Relations where her research focused on Smudging policies in northeastern healthcare facilities. Her PhD had a focus on Anishinaabe Motherhood and examining the challenges, tensions, and strengths of traditional teachings and pedagogies in a contemporary context. Dr. Shawanda has a focus on strengthening Indigenous/Anishinaabe ways being, doing, knowing, and reclaiming. She has been teaching undergraduates and graduate students about Indigenous health, health care, land-based learning, Indigenous maternal health, Indigenous pedagogies, Indigenous methodologies and Spiritual Health. Amy has diverse interests within the Indigenous health and education fields.
Daniel Eisenkraft Klein  is a PhD Candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Health Economics, funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship. His primary research agenda explores how the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries influence policy stakeholders to provide favourable regulatory environments. Daniel is also a Sessional Instructor at Simon Fraser University on the commercial determinants of health, and serves as an Expert Consultant for Johns Hopkins University’s Opioid Industry Documents Archive.