Glossary of Terms

Theft of cultural elements—including symbols, art, language, customs, etc.—for one’s own use, commodification, or profit, often without understanding, acknowledgment, or respect for its value in the original culture. Results from the assumption of a dominant (i.e. white) culture’s right to take other cultural elements.

A concept that originated and is primarily used in the healthcare domain. The concept emphasizes the power imbalance inherent in the patient/client-practitioner relationship. A culturally safe environment is spiritually, socially, and emotionally safe, as well as physically safe for people; where there is no assault, challenge, or denial of their identity, of who they are, and what they need.

The term was developed by Maori nurse Irihapeti Ramsden in the context of nursing care provided to Indigenous peoples in New Zealand. The term has since been extended and applied to Indigenous peoples in other countries where service inequalities persist. This concept shifts power and authority to the Indigenous patient receiving care, who is given the ultimate say in whether care provided was culturally safe or not. It centres upon sharing: shared respect, shared meaning, and shared knowledge and experience, of learning together with dignity and attention.

The active resistance against colonial powers, and a shifting of power towards political, economic, educational, and cultural independence and power that originate from a colonized nation own indigenous culture. This process occurs politically and applies to personal and societal, cultural, political, agricultural, and educational deconstruction of colonial oppression.

The disability rights movement have made many strides in emphasizing a people first approach to framing disability (e.g. “persons with disabilities” vs. “disabled person”). An anti-oppressive and empowerment model also considers systemic and physical barriers as the primary cause of oppression and marginalization of people who live with disabilities rather than locating the problem with the person.

Differences in the lived experiences and perspectives of people that may include race, ethnicity, colour, ancestry, place of origin, political belief, religion, marital status, family status, physical disability, mental disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, class, and/or socio-economic situations.
EDI Skills and Competencies

The attributes, knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, values, and/or principles that demonstrate an understanding of equity, a commitment to diversity, and an ability to create inclusive environments. There is no one set of EDI skills and competencies used across contexts.

Common aspects of EDI skills and competencies are demonstrated/observed at an:

• Individual level (e.g. individual awareness and / or education)
• Interpersonal level (understanding, valuing and working with others in groups)
• Organizational / institutional level (understanding inequity and demonstrating skills that foster equitable and inclusive policies and practices)
• Societal level (contributing to systems change and social justice)

The process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of work. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with superiors and clients. For many BIPOC individuals, this includes managing feelings and expressions when encountering incidents of racism, white fragility, and microaggressions daily.

Equity refers to achieving parity in policy, process and outcomes for historically and/or currently underrepresented and/or marginalized people and groups while accounting for diversity. It considers power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes, in three main areas:

1. Representational equity: the proportional participation at all levels of an institution.
2. Resource equity: the distribution of resources in order to close equity gap.
3. Equity-mindedness: the demonstration of an awareness of, and willingness to, address equity issues.

Refers to groups of people who share cultural traits that they characterize as different from those of other groups. An ethnic group is often understood as sharing a common origin, language, ancestry, spirituality, history, values, traditions and culture. People of the same race can be of different ethnicities.

A person’s internal and psychological sense of themself as man, woman, both, in between, neither, or another understanding of gender. People who question their gender identity may feel unsure of their gender or believe they are not of the same gender they were assigned at birth.

Refers to social roles, structures, language etc. that reinforce the idea that heterosexuality is the presumed norm and is superior to other sexual orientations.