The symposium, titled Pathways of Healing, was not designed as a clinical lecture, but as an act of cultural humility. For Dr. Yang, the goal was to find a common language between the meridian charts of his own tradition and the botanical wisdom held by the 203 First Nations of British Columbia. It was an intentional response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to recognize Indigenous healing as a living, vital system rather than a relic of the past.
In this room, the abstract concepts of health policy dissolved into human faces. Practitioners who once worked in isolation shared the ways they understand wellness—not as the absence of disease, but as a balance maintained between the person, the community, and the earth. There is a specific kind of silence that occurs when people realize their disparate traditions are actually describing the same truths.
A striking botanical bridge exists between these two worlds. The Devil’s Club, a thorny shrub deeply revered in local Indigenous medicine for its spiritual and physical healing properties, belongs to the same plant family as Asian Ginseng. This biological kinship served as a quiet metaphor for the day: different roots, perhaps, but a shared lineage of purpose.
The university carries the name Kwantlen—a word meaning tireless runner—and here, that endurance is applied to the long work of reconciliation.
Since 2013, when the First Nations Health Authority took over regional health programs, there has been a slow but steady movement toward integrating these traditional ways into the modern clinical setting. By opening the doors to students and healthcare professionals alike, Dr. Yang and his colleagues have ensured that the next generation of healers will not just be technicians of medicine, but students of the human spirit.