Despite her pride in her background, Sophie Weiss says she only started learning about her Métis heritage in recent years.
“I wasn’t really raised with any of the culture or traditions. I had to discover that for myself later on,” says Sophie, a University of Toronto medical student and a participant of SPARK (the Sunnybrook Program to Access Research Knowledge for Black and Indigenous Medical Students).
“My mother’s grandmother was a residential school survivor and suppressed that side of her completely to protect herself,” she says, explaining the disconnect from her Indigenous background growing up.
But now as an adult and aspiring geriatrician, Sophie has been reconnecting with her roots by exploring Indigenous practices and building relationships with other Indigenous people.
“I’m at a point where I’m very proud and sure of who I am in my identity,” says Sophie. “But it’s taken a lot to come to this point, and there are still lots of challenges that I face.”
One of the challenges she has been dealing with is the emotional heaviness of the residential school graves that continue to be uncovered throughout the country.
To cope, Sophie has leaned on the relationships she’s built while reconnecting with her heritage. One of the people she’s turned to is her roommate, who happens to be the only other Indigenous person in her medical school class.
“Feeling like you have a safe place to talk can really be motivating,” says Sophie.
And while she’s grateful she has her roommate, Sophie says it’s jarring that there’s such low Indigenous representation in her class, and in medicine in general. Connected to that issue is the fact that Indigenous people are more likely to experience poor health-outcomes than non-Indigenous people.
To help address these tough realities, Sophie’s focus has been learning as much as she can—in school, from her Indigenous mentors, and through social interactions with other Indigenous individuals—so that she can inform her medical career and better support her community.
“I have a very large interest in Indigenous health, and I plan to do lots of outreach and really form my future practice around that,” she says. “I know that I can make an impact.”
