Fight­ing for a Hand to Hold expos­es the med­ical estab­lish­men­t’s role in the dis­place­ment, col­o­niza­tion, and geno­cide of Indige­nous peo­ples in Cana­da. Through metic­u­lous­ly gath­ered gov­ern­ment doc­u­men­ta­tion, his­tor­i­cal schol­ar­ship, media reports, pub­lic inquiries, and per­son­al tes­ti­monies, Sha­heen-Hus­sain con­nects the dra­con­ian mede­vac prac­tice with often-dis­re­gard­ed crimes and med­ical vio­lence inflict­ed specif­i­cal­ly on Indige­nous chil­dren. This dev­as­tat­ing his­to­ry and ongo­ing med­ical colo­nial­ism pre­vent Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties from attain­ing inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized mea­sures of health and social well-being because of the per­va­sive, sys­temic anti-Indige­nous racism that per­sists in the Cana­di­an pub­lic health care sys­tem — and in set­tler soci­ety at large.