I chose to examine the Wikipedia entry on clinical trial research, and particularly participants in clinical trial research. In my work in health research communications, I was certain an Indigenous perspective would be lacking. Indeed, I found that while there was a mention of most research being done on white male participants, there was no reference to the lack of engagement with Indigenous communities or the history of medical violence and unethical testing on them. The post had no reference either to the historic harms of past clinical research done without consent on Indigenous communities or how that continues to affect the healthcare they receive.
I edited the participant's section to add information on Indigenous participation in clinical trials. While there are many new initiatives underway (here is an example of a job posting at the U of A to accelerate trials in partnership with Indigenous communities), these developments felt too early to add to the Wikipedia article as they have not yet been proven successful.
Overall, the process of editing the article was simple. As a settler, I feel some amount of discomfort to be the person adding an Indigenous perspective where one does not exist, however I hope that perhaps this additional can be built off of by others.
I added the following: Indigenous participation in clinical trials
The historical exclusion of Indigenous peoples from clinical trials, coupled with unethical research practices, has left a deep mistrust of medical research within many Indigenous communities. In the past, clinical trials predominantly included white male participants. It wasn't until 1997 that Canada introduced national guidelines to ensure the inclusion of women in clinical trials. Progress towards including diverse ethnic groups, including Indigenous peoples, has also been slow. This exclusion is compounded by a disturbing history of abusive research practices perpetrated by governments and universities. These practices included forced sterilization, attempts to eradicate traditional healing methods, nutritional experiments that deliberately withheld food from starving residential school students, and unauthorized tuberculosis vaccine trials on infants. These deficit-focused research methods and unethical practices have understandably engendered significant distrust among Indigenous communities towards medical research.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_trial#Participant_recruitment_and_participation
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