Maggie Powless-Lynes
Program: Honours Biochemistry Level II
Maggie is a second year McMaster biochemistry student from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She was inspired to join the Indigenous Health Movement after attending the IHM conference in 2018, and witnessing the importance and beauty of collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, in creating such an important event.
This year, Maggie hopes to use her role in the IHM as a way to help strengthen the connections between the Six Nations community and McMaster University, and hopes that the conference will help facilitate pathways to valuing and incorporating Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into all areas of healthcare, research, and academia.
Indigenous health is a topic that has, and always will be, incredibly important to Maggie. Through personal research and exposure to the health issues affecting Indigenous communities, she strives to continue educating herself and others about the ongoing legacy of colonization, and how this, as a social determinant of health, has shaped the current state of Indigenous health. As a biochemistry major, she hopes to find ways to incorporate Western science with Indigenous knowledge in order to address the health disparities affecting Indigenous people.