Abstract
This paper will explain the concept of double perspective and the impact that this cultural understanding may have on the health of the Indigenous peoples of Scandinavia. In inter-cultural communication, one set of meanings may be discernible to the outsider while a whole extra set of restricted or underlying meanings are only accessible for those people who have the cultural knowledge to discern them. These different sets of meanings embody a double perspective. It is not dual perspectives on the same reality but rather seeing two separate but overlapping realities. We will discuss the layers of meaning which are involved in the interactions between public healthcare institutions, clinicians and staff, and Indigenous people including the Sámi. These interactions are influenced by the impact of colonization and the ongoing epistemicide of Indigenous thought. By realising the improved resilience that a double perspective brings to Indigenous peoples, an awareness of the inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous persons, cultures and histories should become established in public institutions and in everyday life. A double perspective carries Sámi resilience, and should be understood as a key to support individual health, and also the collective wellbeing of a people living on their traditional yet colonized land.
Highlights
Before we begin, we authors have some cultural responsibilities and protocols that we need to fulfil by introducing ourselves
Within the double perspective that we will explain, an extra set of important information is imparted through these introductions
A companion paper, “Double perspective narrating time, life and health” (Wilson et al 2020) discusses this concept, though fittingly, from a different context and perspective! Our focus here is on health as it is intimately related to the complex relation between identity and context, including living conditions, social relations and the presence of cultural systems of meaning
Summary
We authors have some cultural responsibilities and protocols that we need to fulfil by introducing ourselves. For Indigenous people, following cultural protocols of introducing ourselves is a way of locating us within a relational framework of community and cultural connections. It establishes our relational positioning as well as confirming social world positioning (Smith 2013; Walter and Anderson 2013). With background in both health and Indigenous studies and a lifetime of lived experience in his Cree culture, B has worked with many Indigenous groups internationally. Kate Senior is a medical anthropologist who has studied how Indigenous people interact with the health services available to them She has extensive experience in remote Indigenous settings in Australia
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