Emily Haigh: Bridging Indigenous knowledge with mainstream psychology
- Richard Dal Monte

A huge, historic charitable gift made national news in October 2024 when Bruce McKean and his Waverley House Foundation donated more than $200 million to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) for a secure care and recovery building in Toronto. But a smaller gift the University of Victoria political science alumnus made to UVic has had an outsized impact.
Growing up in Toronto, Emily Haigh always felt a pull to bridge her two worlds. For the daughter of an English father and Anishinaabe mother from the Thessalon First Nation and surrounding Sault Ste. Marie Métis community, it wasn’t always easy.
When she went away to university, it was even harder.
Haigh studied psychology, a discipline she loves while acknowledging it has been largely developed without diverse perspectives, without acknowledging Indigenous peoples and their unique approaches to health and healing.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from McGill University, then moved south to Kent State University to pursue graduate school—with some scholarship and bursary support from Indigenous organizations such as Indspire, all the while wishing that among her professors and mentors, one might be able to guide her studies in a way that acknowledged Indigenous perspectives.
That wish went unfulfilled.
“It felt like a door that was shut,” Haigh says, though she always retained hope. “I always thought, I’ll do this someday when I have the freedom to do so.”
At the University of Victoria, with the support of philanthropist Bruce McKean, Hereditary Chief David Knox and the Department of Psychology, a door opened.
The professional and the personal came together
In 2021, UVic alumnus McKean gave the university $1.5 million to establish the Chief Mungo Martin Research Chair in Indigenous Mental Health. The role of the chair would be to develop mental-wellness research and learning that is informed by engagement with Indigenous partners and communities.
The next year, Haigh was hired for the position, which bridged her personal background and her professional passion.
“I was really struck by how well-aligned it was with my interests,” she says.
“I’ve always had an interest in understanding how people think, feel and behave, and an interest in helping people if they’re feeling sad or distressed or upset,” explains Haigh, who says she witnessed her father struggle with depression and her mother provide support.
“At that time, he was pursuing treatment. I must have heard references of this role of a psychologist—a ‘people helper’—and it had a strong impact. I think that really shaped how I saw myself as giving back in the world,” she says.
She also carries a commitment to working with Indigenous psychology students so they “can be in a position to both contribute to the field and better benefit from our discipline.”
Haigh says the challenge for those students, and any who study under the umbrella of the Chief Mungo Martin Research Chair, is that they have two heavy things to carry: learning the mainstream psychology curriculum and simultaneously learning to take a critical look at that curriculum through the lens of Indigenous perspectives.
“The fact that I’m in a position to help launch them in their careers, I feel like I’m on the right track and I finally feel like I’m giving back like I said I’d do all along.”
Indigenous students value Haigh’s mentorship
“When I was deciding what school I wanted to come to, having an Indigenous supervisor was an important factor for me,” says McKenna Knox, a clinical psychology student and a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. “I am able to see, as an Indigenous student, that there is a place for me in the field of clinical psychology, and that Indigenous perspectives are valued.
“By incorporating these perspectives,” she says, “we can work toward making psychology a safer, more inclusive space for everyone, while also recognizing and valuing the unique strengths and contributions of Indigenous communities.”
Caleb Shaver is Anishinaabe and his family is from Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, and he completed a research apprenticeship with Haigh as part of LE,NONET, a UVic orientation program for Indigenous students. He also cites supports for Indigenous students in choosing UVic, and says of Haigh: “For Emily to say, ‘I’m going to throw myself in an entirely new position and entirely new work world, and centre my identity in the work’ is really inspiring for me, and that just built a connection there,” he says.
“It really made me think, hey, I think I could do research, I can see myself in this world.”
Addressing healing in Indigenous communities
Among the research Haigh and colleagues are doing—which includes a collaboration with Anishinaabe scholar Charity Fleming looking at adapting cognitive behavioural therapy for Indigenous communities and a study, still in its infancy, to bring together research on healthy aging among Indigenous populations—is a collaboration with the Canadian Red Cross, York University and a number of Indigenous communities to look at community-level approaches to healing and supports needed for recovery as well as general well-being.
Debra Pepler, a research professor of clinical-developmental psychology at York who’s also an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, says she met Haigh after the latter moved to UVic and “I recognized that she… would have deep insights into the work that needed to be done to support those who are struggling with mental health problems. And in the case of Indigenous peoples in Canada, that arises from the harms of colonialism.
“The 11 communities we'd worked with were very clear that they needed to understand the experiences of trauma that they’d had as a result of colonialism, because it’s evident that most people are struggling with intergenerational trauma, but they don't have a clear sense of that because the stories and community have been disrupted and broken,” she says, noting Haigh has been instrumental in developing a “community timeline of harm.”
“We can look at the harms that have occurred in Canada,” Pepler adds. “And this, I believe, will be really transformational.”
“Emily is really helping us,” says Shelley Cardinal, a member of Bigstone Cree First Nation and senior director, Office of Indigenous Relations, with the Canadian Red Cross. “When we look at trauma recovery, we are looking at how to build cultural safety for trauma recovery.
“We’ve also worked with communities around this vision for change and looking at how culture, how language, how reconnection with land, how communities are looking at rebuilding a wellness that has existed forever but sometimes is just so impacted by these various disruptions,” Cardinal says. “When we met Emily, she understood that so well.”
Building relationships with First Nations
Haigh understands the value of the connections she has been able to build with First Nations communities on Vancouver Island, noting, “Ideally, your work is with Indigenous communities, and it unfolds in partnership and genuine relationships.”
She volunteers at the Victoria Native Friendship Centre as a way to continue building relationships, and she has connected with Kwakiutl First Nation, Chief Mungo Martin’s Nation. She attended a recent field school led by Tom Child, a Knowledge Keeper, spending a week hiking, canoeing and cooking, and participating in sharing circles with community members and nurses to talk about culturally safe health care.
“I feel very personally connected and I feel a responsibility to that community,” Haigh says. “And I always go to them first to say, ‘This is what I’m doing.’ But it carries a certain amount of weight and it makes me feel incredibly proud.
Haigh recognizes the significance of the family of Chief Martin allowing his name to be used for the position, saying, “I always feel like I try to stand a little bit taller and do my best to stay true to the name,” and noting, “Chief Mungo Martin himself was a bridge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people with his art.”
It was that art that McKean, the donor, remembered—he was seven when his mother took him to see Chief Martin carving—when he made his donation.
Haigh praises both McKean’s generosity and his thoughtfulness, saying she has met with him a number of times and was even invited to the announcement of his historic CAMH donation.
“I have really appreciated his recognition and understanding that this work takes time and is complicated, and it’s really important,” she says. “I give him credit for having the knowledge and awareness around what’s involved in establishing this type of position and this body of research.”
She continues: “I’m excited about this work. It’s taking a critical lens to what is commonly done in the mainstream, that we’re trained to do as psychologists, but taking a step back to look at Indigenous perspectives and recognize that the addition of these perspectives has the potential to benefit Indigenous people and just people in general.”
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Keywords: community, Indigenous, administrative, student life, psychology, health, wellness, research, People Place Planet
People: Emily Haigh