Indigenous Men Research Articles

Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Christian formation meets indigenous resurrection

Undoing all forms of domination – including, in particular, religious domination – remains a crucial imperative of our time, given that domination constitutes a spirit-killing dynamic that distorts, oppresses and throws living beings (both human and non-human alike) out of synch with themselves. One form of domination in colonial contexts is the totalising claim to a monopoly of ‘the’ truth that effectively delegitimises and demonises all other ways of seeing the world. This essay grapples with the question: What happens when the ‘One True Story’ encounters other faith stories? Riffing off my (coedited) anthology, Back from the Crocodile’s Belly: Philippine Babaylan Studies and the Struggle for Indigenous Memory (dedicated to the memory of the Filipino indigenous women and men healers impaled on stakes by early Spanish missionaries and left on river banks for crocodiles to feast on), I narrate my personal journey growing up as a Filipina Methodist pastor’s kid, becoming a born-again believer and an aspiring Christian missionary trained by Philippine Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship and the Navigators, and belatedly coming to grips with my relationship to my country’s colonial history and its consequences for me and my people’s struggle for wholeness and authenticity. What happens when my wholly formed Christian subjectivity becomes challenged by the resurrecting call of spirit to indigenous and earth well-being? Informed by a multilayered cultural memory, I trace my faith learnings from an encounter with deep ancestry in the ‘belly of the beast’ and its larger significance for today’s social movement struggles for sustainability and global coexistence.

Gender differences in the dialysis treatment of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians

Objective:Access to dialysis treatment and the types of treatments employed in Australia differs by Indigenous status. We examined whether dialysis treatment utilisation in Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians also differs by gender. Methods:Using registry data we evaluated 21,832 incident patients (aged ≥18 years) commencing dialysis, 2001–2013. Incidence rates were calculated and multivariate regression modelling used to examine differences in dialysis treatment (modality, location and vascular access creation) by race and gender. Results:Dialysis incidence was consistently higher in Indigenous women compared to all other groups. Compared to Indigenous women, both non‐Indigenous women and men were more likely to receive peritoneal dialysis as their initial treatment (non‐Indigenous women RR=1.91, 95%CI 1.55–2.35; non‐Indigenous men RR=1.73, 1.40–2.14) and were more likely to commence initial treatment at home (non‐Indigenous women RR=2.07, 1.66–2.59; non‐Indigenous men RR=1.95, 1.56–2.45). All groups were significantly more likely than Indigenous women to receive their final treatment at home. Conclusions:Contemporary dialysis treatment in Australia continues to benefit the dominant non‐Indigenous population over the Indigenous population, with non‐Indigenous men being particularly advantaged. Implications for Public Health:Treatment guidelines that incorporate a recognition of gender‐based preferences and dialysis treatment options specific to Indigenous Australians may assist in addressing this disparity.

Visualization of Traditional Medicine from the Perspective of Indigenous Kichwa of Napo - Ecuador

Abstract Traditional medicine (TM) has been used to maintain health, prevent and treat diseases both acute and chronic. The aim of this investigation is to visualize TM from the perspective of indigenous Kichwa of Napo, Ecuador. A research was carried out for three years implementing surveys and interviews to a population of 250 inhabitants of traditional indigenous medicine men. As a result conceptualizations were made from the responses obtained by making reference to their own definitions of TM. Moreover, quality and quantity of knowledge between those highlighted in ascending order the following categories: Pajuyuks, Samayuks, Yachacks, Bancuks and Kuragas.

Status Anxiety

Status Anxiety

On the Political “Warpath”: Native Americans and Australian Aborigines after the First World War

On the Political “Warpath”Native Americans and Australian Aborigines after the First World War John Maynard (bio) In the wake of the First World War, Indigenous peoples in the United States and Australia joined a global push by those on the margins for self-determination, justice, and equality. This article focuses on and discusses two organizations that formed during this turbulent global time period: the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) in Australia and the Mission Indian Federation (MIF) in the United States. A comparison of the two organizations reveals the strategies they employed in their fight for land, for citizenship, for the protection of their children, and for the mobilization of non-Indigenous support. Both organizations faced powerful government opposition in both countries. I confess that this article is not intended to be a theoretical interpretation of the two groups but is more about restoring a history that is important today for Indigenous people and communities. I derived inspiration from such missing histories of organized political resistance. Both the AAPA and MIF remain very much unknown within the historical literature. In Australia the AAPA and its impact on Aboriginal politics continue to be overlooked by many studies, and the organization remains virtually unknown outside of Australia. The MIF in the United States is similarly relatively unknown and overlooked. I intend to reveal here the impact these groups had at the time and the pan-Indigenous national agenda that both groups strongly endorsed. In both the United States and Australia, Indigenous men returned home from the Great War with shifted perceptions of the world and [End Page 48] their place in it. Gaining acceptance back home within a wider community riddled with deep-seated racism, prejudice, and oppression was a devastating negative reality. Indigenous people in both countries recognized with many others globally that the war itself and its aftermath had caused a seismic shift in global and colonial power structures, and the time was ripe to raise a voice and demand social, political, and economic change.1 In the aftermath of the First World War, Indigenous men and women in both Australia and North America organized political platforms based on Western models but grounded in Indigenous cultural frameworks of doing business. In Australia three organizations formed during the 1920s: the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) in Sydney, New South Wales (N.S.W.), in 1924; the Native Union in Perth, Western Australia, in 1926; and the Australian Aborigines Association in South Australia in 1927. The Native Union and Australian Aborigines Association both focused on local and regional issues and had relatively short terms of organized activity. The AAPA, the biggest organization of the period, instigated a national pan-Aboriginal focus, demanding “enough land for each and every Aboriginal family in the country.” International events and Marcus Garvey’s “Black Nationalist” political ideology greatly influenced and inspired this group. In N.S.W. the catalyst for the establishment of the AAPA in the 1920s was increased government action revoking Aboriginal landholdings and the acceleration of tearing Aboriginal children away from their families by the N.S.W. Aborigines Protection Board.2 In the United States literally dozens of Indian organizations sprang up in the early decades of the twentieth century, some small, some big, some short-lived, and some that battled for Indian rights for decades. Some groups largely focused on local and regional issues, while others mobilized with a national pan-Indian focus in mind. Some of the more prominent included the Navajo Chapters, the Native American Church, the Society of American Indians, the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood, the Californian Brotherhood, the Grand Council Fire of Chicago, the Indian Defense League of America, and the Mission Indian Federation (MIF). Of these many Indian groups I will examine here the MIF, founded in 1919 in California. This organization had a similar platform, motivations, and strategies to those of the AAPA in Australia. Like the AAPA, the MIF recognized the importance of directing its energy toward defending and mobilizing Indigenous support at the grassroots level and encouraging a united pan-Indigenous national agenda. The MIF insisted: “The control of the Indians will be in their own hands, by their electing a...

Healing the Spirit: Exploring Sexualized Trauma and Recovery among Indigenous Men in Toronto.

Colonial policies in Canada have led to social disruption and intergenerational trauma across Indigenous nations, contributing to high rates of sexualized violence within many communities. While mental health and social science discourse has identified the harmful impacts of violence against Indigenous women in Canada, there continues to be a lack of focus on the unique mental health needs of Indigenous men in this regard. This article reviews the results of a nationally funded research study which looked at the mental health and healing needs of Indigenous men in Toronto who have experienced sexualized trauma. This study followed Indigenous protocols for research and was conducted in partnership with Anishnawbe Health Toronto, a culture-based community health center. The methodology utilized a narrative inquiry and interviewed six community men about their recovery journeys and ten community healers and counselors about recovery through a gendered lens. The results explore the discourses that contribute to the social construction of masculinity(ies) and the impacts of these social norms on help-seeking behaviors. These results inform culturally appropriate and gender-relevant mental health service provision for Indigenous male clients recovering from sexualized trauma.

Colonial Connections

“Colonial Connections” explores historical connections and patterns between Iberian and British colonialism that have been ignored by conventional anti-Eurocentric and postcolonial narratives. At issue are the erasure of inter-imperial linkages and the omission of the Iberian empires of Spain and Portugal and the colonization Abya Yala/Latin America as well as the importance that Iberian colonialism and indigenous civilizations had in the shaping of the modern world such as capitalism, racism and the coloniality of gender. The article provides a brief examination of anti-Eurocentric literature that rescues Asia, foremost China, from the dustbin of history while ignoring the importance of Iberian colonialism in the fall of China and the role that indigenous and African slave labor played in the development of capitalism and the triumph of the West. It also explores the artificial separation between Iberian and British colonialism that minimizes the role of religion in British colonialism and the commonalities that emerge once religion is accounted for. Finally, the article addresses the coloniality of democracy or the expulsion of the colony from the polity that emerges from conquest and the dehumanization of indigenous women and men of Abya Yala and notes the unevenness and divergences that surface when British and Iberian colonialisms are compared.

The role of the percentage free PSA in the diagnosis of prostate cancer in Blacks: Findings in indigenous West African men using TRUS guided biopsy

IntroductionIn Western and Asian literature, the measurement of percentage free prostate specific antigen (%fPSA) has been known to enhance the predictive role of total prostate specific antigen (tPSA) in early prostate cancer (Ca-P) detection. Relationship between the tPSA and Ca-P are known to be influenced by race. To the best of our knowledge, the relationship between %fPSA and Ca-P has not been studied in sub-Saharan Africa using current established biopsy protocol. ObjectiveTo evaluate the usefulness of %fPSA in indigenous West African men and determine the appropriate cut-off values that may be used as indication for prostate biopsy in men with tPSA of 4–10ng/ml. Subjects and methodsA total 169 consecutive patients with tPSA of 4–10ng/ml with non-suspicious findings on digital rectal examination (DRE) had a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided 10-core prostate biopsy. The technique of PSA analysis was the Access hybritech assay technique using the Beckman's Access autoimmuno analyser. The rates of prostate cancer in different %fPSA ranges were evaluated. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the efficiency of %fPSA in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. ResultsA reduction %fPSA was associated with a higher detection rate of Ca-P. There was a 62% prevalence of Ca-P with %fPSA≤10% while there was a zero prevalence in patients with fPSA above 20%. At a %fPSA cut off of 20% the sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 45%, respectively. Using the ROC curve, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.76 while the ROC decision plot showed that a %fPSA cut off 15% was associated with the highest ability to discriminate between benign and malignant diseases. ConclusionThe %fPSA is an effective discriminating tool in determining the need for prostate biopsy in indigenous West African men with PSA 4–10ng/ml. A cut off of 15% was associated with the highest performance.

Secondary analysis of data can inform care delivery for Indigenous women in an acute mental health inpatient unit.

There is a paucity of research exploring Indigenous women's experiences in acute mental health inpatient services in Australia. Even less is known of Indigenous women's experience of seclusion events, as published data are rarely disaggregated by both indigeneity and gender. This research used secondary analysis of pre-existing datasets to identify any quantifiable difference in recorded experience between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, and between Indigenous women and Indigenous men in an acute mental health inpatient unit. Standard separation data of age, length of stay, legal status, and discharge diagnosis were analysed, as were seclusion register data of age, seclusion grounds, and number of seclusion events. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data, and where warranted, inferential statistical methods used SPSS software to apply analysis of variance/multivariate analysis of variance testing. The results showed evidence that secondary analysis of existing datasets can provide a rich source of information to describe the experience of target groups, and to guide service planning and delivery of individualized, culturally-secure mental health care at a local level. The results are discussed, service and policy development implications are explored, and suggestions for further research are offered.

The contribution of Helicobacter pylori to excess gastric cancer in Indigenous and Pacific men: a birth cohort estimate.

The reasons for higher gastric cancer incidence rates in indigenous populations are debated. We quantify the role of Helicobacter pylori in excess gastric cancer incidence in Māori and Pacific men in New Zealand. Age-standardized gastric cancer rate ratios for 1981-2004 were calculated in Māori and Pacific men compared with European/other men born in 1926-1940 and in 1941-1955. Rate ratios were then compared with those restricted to H.pylori prevalent populations. H.pylori contributed substantially to excess gastric cancer incidence in Māori men (50%, 61%) and Pacific men (71%,82%) in both cohorts. Policy should focus on reducing the acquisition and prevalence of H.pylori infection in these populations.

A Comparative Study on Indigenous Female Sexuality Body in the Novels at Balai Pustaka and Tionghoa Descent

This qualitative study at examining the body conflict on indigenous women and sexuality were portrayed by the litterateur published in Balai Pustaka novels and Tionghoa Descent litterateur stories. Some of the literature that was studied included Siti Nurbaya (Marah Rusli), Salah Asuhan by Abdoel Moeis as a work of Balai Pustaka period. Meanwhile, Tjerita Si Jonet , Tjerita Nyai Rossina , and Tjerita Nyai Paina were some literary works of Tionghoa Descent. The present study saw that there was similarities colonial perspective against indigenous women. Similarly, indigenous men against indigenous women. They believed that indigenous women did not have a right and a freedom. In colonial view, indigenous women were thoroughly indigenous powerlessness. In the indigenous men view against indigenous women over the nativist position in their gender context. Orientalism in body conflict indigenous women and sexuality at Balai Pustaka novels and novels that were written by Tionghoa Descent presented by the authors through their characters. In Balai Pustaka novels, orientalism body conflict on indigenous women and sexuality presented by prominent indigenous men against indigenous women. For instance, the perspective Datuk Maringgih to Siti Nurbaya. Orientalism in body conflict indigenous women and sexuality in the novels that was written by Tionghoa Descent litterateur, included that was carried out by the Dutch colonial figures and indigenous leaders. Some perspective that denoted the female body and female sexuality natives unlike the liyan wass a perspective mrs van der Ploegh towards Rossina in Tjerita Nyi Rossina , Si Jonat perspective toward Si Saipa in Tjerita Si Jonat , Mr Briot perspective to Nyi Paina in Tjerita Nyi Paina by H. Kommer.

Book Review: Indigenous men and masculinities: Legacies, identities, regeneration.

Book Review: Indigenous men and masculinities: Legacies, identities, regeneration.

Mercury concentrations in urine of amerindian populations near oil fields in the peruvian and ecuadorian amazon

BackgroundMercury is a global contaminant with toxic, persistent effects on human health. Petroleum extraction is an important source of elemental mercury; little is known about human exposure levels near oil fields in the Amazon basin. ObjectivesTo characterize mercury levels in people living near oil production sites in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon, controlling for fish consumption, occupation, source of water and socio-demographic characteristics. MethodsAnalyze mercury levels in urine samples using cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry from 76 indigenous men and women in eight riverine communities situated near oil wells or pipelines. Subjects answered a questionnaire soliciting socio-demographic, occupational and dietary information. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regression modeling. ResultsThe mean value of U-Hg was 2.61μg/g creatinine (95% CI: 2.14–3.08), with 7% of the sample recording values above the global background standard suggested by The World Health Organization (5μg/g creatinine). Women who used water from a surface source had two and a half times the amount of mercury in their urine (mean=3.70μg/g creatinine, 95% CI: 2.26–5.15) compared with women who used other water sources (mean =1.39μg/g creatinine, 95% CI: 0.51–2.25). Men who were involved in an oil clean-up operation had twice as much mercury in their urine (mean =3.07μg/g creatinine, 95% CI: 1.97–4.16) as did those who worked on other tasks (mean =1.56μg/g creatinine, 95% CI: 1.48–2.65). Mercury levels were not associated with the number of fish meals per week. ConclusionsIndigenous peoples of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon living near oil production sites generally had urine mercury levels within the global background standard suggested by the World Health Organization. Increased levels of mercury in urine were detected for men involved in oil spill remediation and for women who relied on surface water for household needs. These findings signal the need for strict safety measures to limit the amount of oil entering the waterways in Andean Amazonia so as to protect the health of indigenous people.

Listening to Australian Indigenous men: stories of incarceration and hope.

This paper reports on a project conducted between 2008 and 2011 that was established to allow eight Australian Indigenous men who had been in prison to tell their stories of incarceration. The Shed in Western Sydney, NSW, Australia, was set up in response to the high male suicide rate in that area, its objective being to support men at risk. Aboriginal men were the most at risk, and they are presently imprisoned at a rate of 13 times more than non-Indigenous men. This small project sought to give voice to the men behind the statistics and point to a significant problem in Australian society. Interviews were conducted by an Indigenous male, questions covering age at first entering the penal system, number of prison stays, support, and health. This paper is framed around responses to these questions. All but one of the men were recidivist offenders, and over half were under 15 years of age when first offending. All talked about a lack of support both inside and after leaving prison, and alcohol and depression figured strongly in the accounts. Disadvantage and social exclusion, lack of support such as access to housing and health services, figure significantly in the men's stories. It is only when social issues are addressed that any gains will be achieved and a cycle of recidivism broken.

Men of War, Men of Peace: Changing Masculinities in Vanuatu

The first European observers in the archipelago we now call Vanuatu characterised Indigenous men as martial warriors. Such observations occluded the diversity of Indigenous masculinities and the violence inherent in colonial processes of exploration, and later dispossession, ‘pacification’ and the imposition of colonial law. Indigenous relations between men were grounded in ascribed hierarchies of seniority and either achieved or ascribed hierarchies of divine power. Ideally more senior and higher ‘men of peace’ were seen to eclipse younger, lower ‘men of war’, but creative and destructive aspects of masculine power were often co-present in Janus-face formations. In surveying the longue durée of changing masculinities in Vanuatu we can witness complex reconfigurations associated with Christian conversion, the ‘labour trade’, commodity economy and state politics. The American military presence during the Second World War was a pivotal moment in such historical reconfigurations. As against the colonial masculine hierarchy of white mastas and black boes, it generated idioms of racial equality and fraternity between black men and white men and fuelled movements for independence. This is in stark contrast with the historical experience of another Pacific archipelago, Hawai‘i, a state of the United States and a major base for the US military securing what some Kānaka Maoli see as an occupation of their homelands. A comparison of these two Pacific archipelagos highlights how Indigenous masculinities are historically formed and transformed in the context of the race relations of different colonialisms.

Toward an Understanding of the Poor Health Status of Indigenous Australian Men.

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of health and health behaviors among Indigenous Australian men. Using a participatory action research (PAR) framework, we conducted two focus groups and 40 individual semi-structured interviews with men between the ages of 18 and 35 years in each of three locations across Australia. We used the health beliefs model to provide a framework for the analyses. Participants recognized that their Indigenous status placed them in a vulnerable position with regard to health, and that there might be serious consequences of failing to follow a good diet and engage in appropriate exercise. However, they delineated a number of barriers to engaging in such health behaviors. These perceived barriers require addressing at a range of policy levels within government, with a focus on social structures and institutionalized discrimination, as well as unemployment, poverty, dispossession, and cultural oppression.

Finding the door: Critical incidents facilitating gang exit among indigenous men.

Our aim was to generate a categorical scheme to describe how participants exited from gang life. We utilized the CIT (Butterfield, Borgen, Amundson, & Maglio, 2005; Flanagan, 1954; Woolsey, 1986) and explored gang exit processes among 10 Indigenous men living in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada. Participants responded to the question: What facilitated gang exit for you? They provided 136 critical incidents that were organized into 13 categories of behaviors and experiences that facilitated their exit from gang life: (a) working in the legal workforce, (b) accepting support from family or girlfriend, (c) helping others stay out of gang life, (d) not wanting to go back to jail, (e) accepting responsibility for family, (f) accepting guidance and protection, (g) participating in ceremony, (h) avoiding alcohol, (i) publically expressing that you were out of the gang, (j) wanting legit relationships outside gangs, (k) experiencing a native brotherhood, (l) stopping self from reacting like a gangster, and (m) acknowledging the drawbacks of gang violence. The categorical scheme is presented, described with use of extensive quotes from this research, theoretical and clinical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record

Ecological Model of Australian Indigenous Men's Health.

This study was designed to examine the health behaviors as well as the enablers and barriers to health behaviors among Indigenous Australian men. One hundred and fifty Indigenous Australian men in rural, regional, and urban locations were interviewed about their health behaviors. The results revealed several themes of importance: (a) role of community activities, (b) the Indigenous man as a leader and role model, (c) negative impact of discrimination/racism, (d) importance of partner and family, (e) positive and negative role of peer relationships, (f) central role of culturally appropriate health care facilities, and (g) association between employment and health care problems. These findings highlight the importance of broad community-based (rather than individualistic) approaches to promoting health behavior in Indigenous men.

Disorderly Pasts: Kinship, Diagnoses, and Remembering in American Indian-U.S. Histories

“Disorderly Pasts” centers on life stories from South Dakota’s Canton Asylum, a federal psychiatric hospital for American Indians. Between 1902 and 1933, the Asylum detained nearly four hundred Indigenous men, women, and children from more than fifty Native nations. Focusing especially on the experiences of Menominee people collectively stolen from their homes in Wisconsin to Canton in November 1917, this article exposes contested understandings of kin, diagnoses, and remembering. Complex relationships between the three concepts also emerge: medical diagnoses were used to undermine Indigenous kinship, and they complicate remembering. At the same time, remembering—recalling and repopulating the past—offers a way to challenge pathological diagnoses and affirm Native self-determination. Motivated by disorder , the desire to “disrupt the systematic functioning or neat arrangement of” historical work, this project unsettles the projected objectivity and commonsense logic of U.S. medical diagnoses and institutionalization. It brings to light the violent entanglement of settler colonialism, racism, ableism, and patriarchy and their impact on Native sovereignty, Indigenous kinship, and remembering. Collaborating with relatives of those incarcerated at Canton, and drawing on decolonizing and disability studies methodologies, this work seeks to generate meaningful historical knowledge and new theoretical strategies and perspectives.

Ethnicity and Health in Colombia: What Do Self-Perceived Health Indicators Tell Us?

To compare self-perceived health indicators between ethnic groups in Colombia. Cross-sectional study with data from the 2007 National Public Health Survey (ENSP-2007). Data from 57,617 people ≥18 years were used. Variables included: belonging to an ethnic group (exposure); self-rated health; mental health problems, injuries for accidents/violence (outcomes); sex, age, education level and occupation (explicative/control). A descriptive study was carried out of the explicative variables, and the prevalence of the outcomes was calculated according to ethnicity, education level and occupation. The association between the exposure variable and the outcomes was estimated by means of adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI using logistic regression. Analyses were conducted separately for men and women. The prevalence of outcomes was higher in people reporting to belong to an ethnic group and differences were found by sex, ethnic groups and health outcomes. Women from the Palenquero group were more likely to report poor self-rated health (aOR 7.04; 95%CI 2.50-19.88) and injuries from accidents/violence (aOR 7.99; 95%CI 2.89-22.07). Indigenous men were more likely to report mental health problems (aOR 1.75; 95%CI 1.41-2.17). Gradients according to ethnicity, education, occupation and sex were found. Minority ethnic groups are vulnerable to reporting poor health outcomes. Political actions are required to diminish health inequalities in these groups.