March 12, 2025 —
Cameron Bouchard grew up with no knowledge of his Métis heritage.
Then, about five years ago, a cousin pursued genealogical research and verified the Métis identity of Bouchard’s mother’s family.
“It was a community that I should have been a part of, growing up,” says Bouchard, a 26-year-old graduate student. “At first, I felt a sense of loss and anger at my ancestors for hiding it.
“But as I learned more about the reasons why families hid their Métis ancestry, I shifted to understanding the system of colonialism and oppression. I’m ‘re-membering’ myself as part of the Métis community.”
Bouchard, now a card-carrying citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), holds a bachelor’s degree in biology. He is pursuing his master of science at the [College of Pharmacy](https://umanitoba.ca/pharmacy/). His supervisor, assistant professor Dr. Anna Chudyk, has expertise in engaging patients in health services research.
For his master’s research project, Bouchard is planning what he believes is the first study of the health-care experiences of Manitoban Métis people living with congenital heart disease. He’s partnering with the MMF to recruit participants, and he’ll use the Indigenous qualitative research method of traditional sharing circles to collect the data.
“We need distinct, culturally based Métis health research,” he says. “Collaboration is key. Métis patients will be involved from the design of the study to the data analysis.
“We’re planning to do one urban and one rural sharing circle. Métis Elders will be involved. We want to make sure we’re doing our research in a way that promotes Métis voices.”
People born with congenital heart disease – the term for various types of structural heart defects – are surviving much longer than they used to because of advances in pediatric care, Bouchard says.
Many now live long, full lives, but they still require specialized cardiac monitoring. For example, a patient might need a heart valve replacement every 20 years.
Because Indigenous people, including Métis citizens, face many barriers to equitable health care, they are probably less likely to receive appropriate continuity of care for congenital heart disease, Bouchard says.
Roughly 30 per cent of all patients with the disease receive no adult cardiac care after transitioning out of pediatric care, he says. Indigenous patients, who are already disadvantaged in the health system and may live far away from heart specialists, are even more at risk.
“A lot of times, Indigenous patients are blamed for not seeking followup care,” Bouchard adds.
The research study will give participants a safe place to share the positives and negatives of their health-care experiences. The sharing circles will be guided by questions such as, “What is one message you wish you could tell health-care workers?”
It’s essential to listen respectfully to people with lived experience, Bouchard says. “Having the patients in the sharing circle drive the conversation is the best way for us to become informed about what needs to change.
“You can’t just rely on Westernized methods of large data collection and numbers and stats. You have to get the stories of the patients.”
Bouchard hopes his findings will demonstrate the research value of sharing circles and help to inform health-care decisions about the supports and services that Métis patients need.
“If you’re going to make a policy change that’s going to affect how Indigenous people interact with the health-care system, those stakeholders have to be at the table the whole way through,” he says.
Bouchard hopes the next step in his journey will be admission to medical school. “What I would like to do, potentially, is to be a leader in Indigenous health as a Métis physician, and try to give back to this community.”
ALISON MAYES