Elbow River Healing Lodge

10/09/2026

10/07/2026

Culturally safe spaces are an important part of healthcare. This year, we celebrated 20 years of serving Indigenous patients in Calgary with a pipe ceremony, teachings and stories, dancing and music, traditional foods and an Indigenous art market.

As Calgary’s only Indigenous-focused primary health care clinic, our team strives to ensure that the care we provide is grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing and guided by respect, understanding, and relationship.

Thank you to the Elders, patients, physicians, and staff who have been part of our journey and celebrated with us.

10/07/2026

Here's where the Mobile Mammography clinic will be over the next couple of weeks.

10/02/2026

10/01/2026

On September 30, we join Canadians to acknowledge the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. It is a day to remember the children who never returned home and the survivors of residential schools, and to honour the strength, resilience and enduring cultures of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.

Supporting culturally grounded and respectful care is an important part of reconciliation. The Indigenous Support Line is a free telephone service available to First Nations, Métis and Inuit to help navigate the healthcare system and connect with culturally grounded care. Through the Line, callers can get support accessing services, addressing concerns, connecting with Indigenous cultural supports, or finding assistance for mental health and addiction challenges.

The Line is available Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at 1-844-944-4744 or through 811. For more information, visit primarycarealberta.ca/isl.

09/30/2026

Practicing medicine in rural and remote communities poses some formidable challenges, but family physician Dr. Jennifer Parker wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I love my work. I love the opportunities that I’ve been given,” she says.

For more than 12 years Dr. Parker has looked after patients in High Level, as well as Meander River, part of the Dene Tha’ First Nation, and John D’or Prairie, part of Little Red River Cree Nation, two of the 10 First Nations communities in the area where she spends a significant portion of her time.

Dr. Parker estimates her practice is made up of 70-80 per cent First Nations patients. She has an Indigenous background herself and is from the Moberly Lake/Fort Nelson area of British Columbia.

“There are some amazing things happening on reservations across the country, but when it comes to First Nations healthcare, the fact is there are dramatic systemic issues,” she says.

Sept. 30 marks Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Dr. Parker cites food insecurity, poor housing and access to clean drinking water as three of the fundamental issues impacting First Nation communities.

For example, she says that in every First Nation community she’s worked with, nutritional deficiency of iron is a serious issue, particularly among the obstetrical patients she sees.

“If a mom doesn't have enough iron, the baby's not going to get enough iron, period. It increases risks for postpartum hemorrhage, and it increases risks for iron deficiency anemia in a newborn, which is going to cause brain deficits that never go away.”

Parker helps many of her pregnant patients by providing iron supplements intravenously, however the underlying issue of inadequate nutrition remains.

“It took us 200 years to get here and it’s going to take us more than 20 to get out,” she says.

“What’s hopeful to me is that at least we’re having conversations around it. Before you have reconciliation, you have to have truth. Truth-telling is the phase we’re in now. This is going to be a progression.”

09/29/2026

FYI - here's where the Mobile Mammography Clinic will be for the first few weeks of October. Call to book!

09/28/2026

09/25/2026

https://www.ciffcalgary.ca/films/2026/ceremony
Tues, Sept 29 - 5:45pm - Director in attendance
- Wed, Sept 30 - 12:45pm
Where: Cineplex Theatre Chinook, 6455 Macleod Trl SW, Calgary, AB