'A Tribe Called Med': Tight-knit group of Indigenous grads celebrate major milestone

Four medical school students from different parts of Canada marked a major milestone with a special Indigenous graduation ceremony in London, Ont., to wrap up their shared journey.

Western University honoured a total of over 60 Indigenous students from all programs at the virtual event Friday.

This indivisible group graduated from the four-year Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry program:

• Shanté Blackmore.
• Justine Fletcher.
• Erik Mandawe.
• Marcy Maracle.

The four came together in September 2017 thanks to Cheyenne LaForme, an upper-year medical student who met them each separately and created a group chat using the name "A Tribe Called Med," inspired by the former electronic music band A Tribe Called Red, now known as The Halluci Nation. 

"We hit it off immediately," said Mandawe, a member of the Cree Nation in Beaver Lake, Alta. 

"We all come from very different places, whether that's the East Coast, West Coast or here in Ontario. But what we really identified with was this experience of going through medical education and in a lot of ways of finding the humour in it."

Group members looked out for each other by trying to find healthy ways of coping with the "gruelling" parts of the journey and some of the systemic problems within the practice of medicine in Canada, said Mandawe.

"Through the process of going through your Western-trained education, you're very aware of this practice of medicine and how it has a colonial background," he said.

Coming together for support

Fletcher is from Hiawatha First Nation near Peterborough, Ont., Maracle is from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, near Hastings County, and Blackmore is from Millbrook First Nation, a Mi'kmaq community in Truro, N.S.

"I had to leave my family, friends, community and territory completely in order to attend medical school," said Blackmore. "Going through medicine without my usual supports was an incredible challenge, but knowing I had peers who understood exactly what I was going through was so encouraging."

Mandawe's journey to get to where he is now is particularly remarkable. He first earned his undergraduate degree in science at the University of Toronto before arriving at Western, where he pursued a degree in music.

As an artist, he wanted a job where he could use his hands and continue being creative. His mother played a large role in guiding him in his career path, despite not knowing so at the time, he said. 

When Mandawe was a teenager and his mother returned to school to get a bachelor's degree in science to work as a nurse, he would follow her to classes and attend them at times. 

 "All the sacrifices that she has had to make, it's gotten me to where I am now. It's her sacrifices, it's our ancestors, it's all of those together," Mandawe said, tearing up. "I can't help but feel emotional thinking about that."

Grads get special fashion item

Mandawe will head to Halifax's Dalhousie University, where he was matched with his top choice program — plastic and reconstructive surgery.

At the Western ceremony, the graduates wore special stoles made by Mohawk fashion designer Tammy Beauvais and gifted to each graduate by the Western Indigenous Student Centre.

"The ceremony is really special," said Fletcher. "It supports the two-eyed seeing approach, honouring our Indigenous background but also acknowledging we are incorporating Western medicine as we go off on our next adventure."

Fletcher will head home to start her residency in family medicine in Peterborough, as the first Indigenous physician from Hiawatha First Nation, and Blackmore will join Mandawe in Halifax where he will practise family medicine.