“I feel seen”: Developing Cultural Safety Training using the Co-writing Circle method of Collaborative Storytelling – May 26, 2026

Session Description

Indigenous cultural safety training for healthcare providers is a rapidly growing field with diverse approaches in ICS training development. Emerging research has identified the need for inclusion and representation of diverse Indigenous peoples voices and experiences to ensure Indigenous Cultural Safety training is relevant, ethical, and impactful. Using my ongoing postdoctoral work as an example, I will share one community-driven approach for developing ICS healthcare provider training – the co-writing storytelling method. Our team developed this collaborative participatory method, using it to craft immersive, branching teaching storylines that reflect, respect, and respond to local Indigenous community experiences of gaps in cultural safety obstetric and neonatal hospital care in the Tkaronto area. Within this talk, I will share my experiences with the co-writing circle method, providing an overview of the method, describing key principles and essential practices that guided the work, and sharing a look at the next steps to finalizing the storyline design and evaluating the work.