Indigenous Practitioners Research Articles

Foundational features of indigenous pregnancy care: Lessons learned from indigenous pregnancy care providers

ProblemIndigenous populations experience higher odds of poor maternal and infant health outcomes than non-Hispanic White mothers yet have lower odds of receiving adequate prenatal care. BackgroundMany Indigenous communities rely on modern Western medical institutions to provide pregnancy related health care. These systems were not developed with or for Indigenous communities and often fail to meet the needs of Indigenous pregnant patients. Offering culturally congruent models of care may increase prenatal care utilization. Question, hypothesis or aimThis paper used qualitative inquiry to identify Indigenous approaches to caring for pregnancy. MethodsOur team conducted 16 semi-structured individual interviews and one group interview with a total of 19 respondents. To arrive at thematic categories, the research team engaged in a modified pile sorting technique. The final set of categories, along with sub-themes, descriptions and example quotes, were sent to interviewees for approval. FindingsTen Foundational Features of Indigenous Pregnancy Care were identified. These covered themes related to Indigenous cultural practices, relationships, Indigenous sovereignty, local Indigenous community, full spectrum care, wholistic care, birthing person's wisdom, power and autonomy, flexibility, historical trauma, and cultural awareness. DiscussionModern midwifery care delivered by Indigenous practitioners may partially bridge the cultural gap; however, intentional effort is needed to integrate Indigenous ways into medical doctor practice models and facilities. ConclusionThis paper identifies ten foundational features of Indigenous pregnancy care and demonstrates the importance of recognizing the effects of trauma and providing opportunities for healing, upholding sovereignty, and centering relationships when caring for Indigenous pregnancies.

“Why Don’t We Try Something New?”: How Indigenous Educators Supported One Another in Leaning Toward in Community-Based Inquiry

What would the impact be on Indigenous practitioners’ viewpoints if they had access to resources pertinent to Indigenous education and make the information they learn from these resources relevant to their community? How can a teacher push through problematic rhetoric and obstacles when committing to Indigenous youth’s education? This article presents these questions, showing how a group of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho educators dialogued about education and teaching. When these educators dedicated time to discuss Indigenous education resources, they were able to lean toward in community-based inquiry and dream about curriculum that centered Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho beliefs.

Deconstructing the Privileged Status of Religion over the Status of Belief as the Root of Discrimination towards Kejawen Community

The Kejawen community, recognized as a belief system rather than a formal religion, faces systemic discrimination in Indonesia. This distinction underpins the country's recognition of its political and legal status, thereby impeding the rights of Indigenous practitioners, including Kejawen followers. Several factors contribute to this systemic discrimination: the Western conception of religion, the dichotomy between religion and belief enshrined in Article 29 of the 1945 Indonesian Constitution, the narrow definition of religion by the Indonesian Department of Religion, the association of indigenous beliefs with communism post-1965, and the application of blasphemy laws aimed at "purifying" religion while sidelining belief systems. This study aims to explore the discriminative dynamics against Kejawen within the binary framework of religion versus belief through qualitative research and critical discourse analysis. It seeks to uncover the ambiguity surrounding the concept of religion in Indonesia, drawing on a wide range of sources, including historical narratives, academic studies, relevant legislation, and judicial rulings. This research indicates a significant bias rooted in the differentiation between "religion" and "belief," primarily originating from Western perspectives on religion. This bias has led to the marginalization of Kejawen and other similar spiritual practices, which are often viewed as lesser compared to world religions.

Meaningful Positioning

Indigenous women and birthing parents in Canada disproportionately face mistreatment in their maternal healthcare experiences due to systemic anti-Indigenous racism, ongoing harmful impacts of settler colonialism, and power differentials inherent in many healthcare relationships. Indigenous midwives and doulas are important leaders in resisting these conditions and reclaiming traditional Indigenous birth knowledge and practices. Ultimately, they work to uphold Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty. Grounded in an understanding of historical and current challenges regarding Indigenous maternal health, this qualitative study explored how best to situate oneself as a settler researcher and maternal health practitioner to support Indigenous maternal health in a culturally safe, anti-racist manner. In this article, key insights are shared from semi-structured interviews conducted with five prominent Indigenous scholars, midwives and community leaders. These consultants emphasized the central importance of intentional relationships in advancing the reclamation of traditional birth practices and providing culturally safe care, along with the indispensability of Indigenous midwives and doulas in these processes. Consultants also stressed the critical need for increased numbers of, and accessibility to, Indigenous practitioners in communities across the country. Settler practitioners are urged to understand the historical and contemporary impacts of settler colonialism, and the significance of building culturally safe, anti-racist relationships with their Indigenous colleagues and clients.

Diseases and Healthcare: The African Indigenous Religion Practitioners’ Perspective in Ghana

Issues of diseases and healthcare are very crucial to human life and survival. Africans have always sought to find holistic and impeccable remedies to diseases and sicknesses that disturb human life and survival. Africans being incurably religious have sought to employ religious perspectives in their healing systems. Ghanaians have from time immemorial employed their indigenous or traditional worldview in their healing system or approach to diseases and sicknesses. This paper explores the African indigenous practitioners’ approach to diseases, their causes and solution. It also looks at the traditional healing systems in the face of the Western approach to diseases or healing systems. This work is a result of a discussion of scholarly works on African indigenous religious approaches to diseases and traditional healthcare vis-a-vis the orthodox healing systems. It is the ardent hope of the authors that readers appreciate African indigenous healing systems and how they can be combined with orthodox healing systems to ensure holistic healthcare in contemporary society. Keywords: Healthcare, Diseases, Healing, Medicine, African Indigenous Religion, Traditional Religion

Creating Spaces for Decolonization and Indigenization Among Mental Health Professionals in Higher Education

ABSTRACTAs Indigenous mental health professionals, we need to articulate and differentiate between uncolonizing spaces, and moving toward decolonization and indigenization in the training of mental health professionals. While these terms are frequently used, the processes involved remain to be clearly articulated. Too often practices that are intended to be decolonizing center the settler-colonizer narrative. Representation of Indigenous peoples as active agents in their own healing matters and their knowledge systems must be included in mental health training. Three necessary elements are required to create these spaces: a) centering Indigenous epistemologies in theory, practice, and research; b) co-constructing learning spaces where Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences are heard, validated, and honored and conducted with cultural humility; and c) practicing ceremonies/rituals to create healing and connectedness within these sacred spaces. Finally, we provide a case study of the creation of a Hui (group in Hawaiian) among Indigenous practitioners, scholars, and students demonstrating transformation of pedagogy and praxis for mental health professionals in training (Barnhardt, 1992; Fellner, 2018a; hook, 2013).

Working with Indigenous science(s) frameworks and methods: Challenging the ontological hegemony of ‘western’ science and the axiological biases of its practitioners

Globally, Indigenous scientific frameworks and methods have been damaged and derided by ‘western’ science, a strategy of the colonial project. Contemporary Australia is no exception, with the transmission of the suite of scientific values and practices formed over millennia in and for this place being actively prevented by legislation, government policies and colonial opprobrium. This paper shows how two crucial Indigenous science(s) frameworks, used alongside two Indigenous research methods, can transform hegemonic scientific research and fieldwork priorities and practices. This transformation occurs because of the focus of each framework. The first, centring country, requires decentring the human to bring forth the needs of the web of relationships that is country. The second framework, relational accountability, is about tending to a broad range of relationships, are often kin-based and including the other-than-human, with yindyamarra (or local equivalent). Relational accountability also offers an inbuilt ethic of care superior to institutional ethics protocols. By describing these frameworks and methods and discussing how and when to use them, this paper supports their greater understanding and more widespread use, particularly by Indigenous practitioners, so we may continue to (re)build what colonisation has damaged.

Transformative epistemologies for regenerative tourism: towards a decolonial paradigm in science and practice?

There is a growing scholarly interest in the potential of regenerative tourism approaches to address sustainability challenges. Drawing from an ecological worldview that interweaves Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, regenerative tourism approaches seek to increase the capacity of support systems for fulfilling net-positive social-ecological effects. We argue that Western scientific paradigms drive current tourism research methodologies and are sometimes insufficient and unfit to (advance) regenerative tourism research. The extent to which new research methodological approaches can align with the ecological worldview and regenerative paradigm is an underpinning premise. As part of a broader study of the emerging regenerative tourism concept, a scoping review of 84 peer-reviewed and 116 grey literature articles, supplemented by consultations with nine regenerative tourism practitioners, six Indigenous practitioners and one cultural knowledge holder, identified nine research gaps that explicate this mismatch. An analytical framework guided the gap analysis and the formulation of a future research agenda. Findings suggest that tourism scholarship is not keeping pace with the evolution of regenerative tourism, requiring additional and new approaches. A transformational decolonial, transdisciplinary research paradigm is proposed that fully embraces the regenerative tourism paradigm and thus enables knowledge production that facilitates plural regenerative tourism futures.

Indigenous practitioners' views on causes of female infertility.

The use of indigenous practices has increased remarkably throughout the world. Subsequently, society uses this practice for the treatment of various health problems, including infertility. This research focussed on the role of indigenous practitioners (IPs) using a holistic approach to explore the causes of infertility in women. This study aimed to explore and describe the views of IPs on the causes of female infertility in Ngaka Modiri Molema health district. The study was conducted in Ngaka Modiri Molema, North West Province, one of the most rural provinces in South Africa. The study followed a qualitative explorative design. A purposive sampling technique identified five IPs who were experts in managing infertility. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data analysis used Creswell's method of qualitative data analysis. Findings revealed that IPs offered a wide range of services in the treatment and management of infertility among rural women. Hence, the following themes emerged, namely, history taking regarding infertility, treatment of infertility and holistic care on infertility. The IPs are important providers of healthcare in the management of infertility in indigenous communities. The findings revealed that there are various causes of female infertility according to the indigenous healthcare system. In contribution, the study described the unique practices found in the community as executed by the IPs. This care focusses on holistic care, including treatment and continuous care for the healthcare user and the family. Noteworthy to mention, this holistic care extends to subsequent pregnancies. However, there is a need for further research to valorise the indigenous knowledge unearthed in this study.

Negotiating social medicine in a postcolonial context: Halfdan Mahler in India 1951-61.

This article investigates how World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Halfdan Mahler's views on health care were formed by his experience in India between 1951 and 1961. Mahler spent a large part of the 1950s in India assigned as WHO medical officer to tuberculosis control projects. It argues that Mahler took inspiration from the official endorsement of the doctrine of social medicine that prevailed in India; even if it was challenged by an increasing preference for vertical, techno-centric campaigns. It shows how, from the outset, Mahler was remarkably hostile towards the highly skilled, clinically oriented doctors, but embraced prevalent ideas of community participation. It suggests that Mahler - although he remained silent on the issue - was impressed by the importance and resilience of indigenous traditions of medicine, despite hostility from leading political figures. In this way, the article attempts to establish links to Mahler's advocacy of primary health care in the 1970s. A broad approach to health, scepticism toward clinically oriented doctors, preference for simple technologies and community participation, as well as an accommodating attitude towards indigenous practitioners, were all features of primary health care, which correlate well with views developed by Mahler as he negotiated social medicine in India between 1951 and 1961.

Narratives of Women with Infertility Who Use Indigenous Practices to Conceive, North West Province, South Africa

Infertility is a serious reproductive health challenge that has a far-reaching impact on women’s lives as they, inevitably, are the ones blamed for the failure to conceive. Despite availability of Western treatments to manage infertilit y, women frequently consult indigenous healthcare practitioners (IHCP) for healthcare, preferring these services to Western practice due to reasons such as accessibility and affordability. The study used a qualitative explorative, descriptive, and contextual design. Both purposive and snowballing technique were used to identify five women whom indigenous practitioners had assisted to conceive. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted and data were analyzed using the Tesch method of data analysis. IHCPs are known experts in managing infertility, experiences of women on indigenous management of infertility and continuous holistic management of infertility among women.

Re-materialising


 This paper considers how systems of art production are changing in response to climate crisis, and how artists are re-materialising extractive materials like plastic. This discussion centres on the creative practice of Te Whanganui-a-Tara and Ōtautahi based Pākehā artist Raewyn Martyn and thinks through connections with Pākehā, tauiwi and Indigenous practitioners in the context of earlier ecologically engaged practices. Extreme weather is escalating concerns about cycles of industry reliant on carbon emissions and waste production, and within contemporary art industries there is heightened dissatisfaction with dominant models of production, curation, collection and market-led valuation. We discuss parallel changes within systems of production in the plastics industry (with a focus on bioplastics) and within the art world, specifically Martyn’s investigation and creation of biopolymer forms which simultaneously comprise context, ground, and ‘image’ within each site responsive painting. Attention will be focused on the potentials of circular economies and aesthetics, alongside values that complicate an art ecology within the wider transition away from petro-hegemonic culture.

Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World: A Gendered Perspective

Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World: A Gendered Perspective

Controlling Healthy Populations: Medicine, Biopolitics, and Racial Politics in Spanish New Orleans, 1763–1803

Controlling Healthy Populations:Medicine, Biopolitics, and Racial Politics in Spanish New Orleans, 1763–1803 Liana DeMarco (bio) Sometime in early August 1794, a free woman of African descent named Margarita Goton faced off against her former enslaver and current employer in a courtroom in Pensacola, Florida. Goton alleged that Dr. Juan Rubí, first surgeon of the Spanish Royal Hospital of Pensacola, was refusing to pay her the remaining balance of her wages from ten years' work at the hospital. Rubí had already captured the vast majority of Goton's earnings per her contract to become coartada, or legally no longer a slave. Rubí had purchased Goton in New Orleans in 1781, but in 1784 the two agreed that Rubí would emancipate Goton after she paid him the equivalent of her market value. Ten years later the price was paid and she had her freedom, but by her calculations Rubí had taken 1,235 pesos on top of the coartación sum he had agreed to. At one point, Goton threatened to withhold her labor until she received her money, stating that she "would not spend any more time in service of the hospital and would retire that very night." She would accept being paid in installments, but, according to the court record, she wanted Rubí "to certify her total payment in writing so that if there were any more delays in her payments, she would have the official record she needed to get the money she was owed." Goton's confidence in the courtroom stemmed from her understanding that people like her were essential to Spanish colonial medicine and public health. She worked in a colonial hospital similar to those in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Havana where, more often than not, enslaved and free people of African descent did the vast majority of everyday work, from sweeping the floors to treating patients. Nonetheless, Juan Rubí refused flat out to pay her, arguing that he had a right to all of Goton's wages after being, in his words, "so liberal and generous in giving [End Page 447] her freedom at price and without interest." He declared Goton's threats meaningless, saying that the hospital did not need her labor. Goton, who clearly believed the exact opposite, was caught off guard.1 This legal case illuminates key themes in the history of medicine and public health in the late-eighteenth-century Spanish Atlantic world. Spanish medicine was moving away from its traditional basis in Iberian scholasticism, as its practitioners became more interested in using reason to reveal rational explanations for the human body, illness, and disease.2 Yet historians of Spanish colonial medicine in Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala have shown that people of African descent and Indigenous people were heavily involved in the Spanish state's efforts to heal the sick, fight infectious disease, and extract local medical knowledge. For example, colonial officials often worked with Indigenous medical practitioners during smallpox inoculation campaigns in Guatemala and Peru, not just because the Spanish needed the labor, but also because they recognized the skills of Indigenous practitioners and the efficacy of their medical knowledge.3 Similar social dynamics existed along the Spanish Gulf Coast of North America, and especially in New Orleans, where people of African descent were the backbone of colonial medicine and public health. Between 1763 and 1803, New Orleans was not only a military outpost for the Spanish empire but also a pivotal site of state-led biopolitical projects and transformations in medical authority. The Spanish believed that the management of healthy, racialized populations—what I call [End Page 448] here biopolitics—was essential for the economic development of New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole.4 Upon claiming the city from the French after the Seven Years' War, Spanish officials set out to order the urban landscape and to expand the medical and public health infrastructure to support growing populations of enslaved laborers and white settlers. To do so, they relied heavily on the labor of free and enslaved people of African descent, but not out of pragmatism alone. For centuries, people of all backgrounds in the Spanish Atlantic had trusted medical practitioners of African...

A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism

A Critique of Philosophical Shamanism

Modifying Psychiatric Approaches to Respond Better to Indigenous People in Maine (North America)

IntroductionPsychiatry has typically underserved indigenous people and immigrants. Indigenous people have different ways of viewing mind and mental health and conventional Euro-American psychiatry has not always acknowledged that.ObjectivesWe wanted to modify conventional psychiatric approaches to better serve our indigenous population. We worked together to determine what that would be, gained feedback from indigenous patients and practitioners, and wanted to describe what we learned in an autoethnographic fashion.MethodsWe engaged each other, indigenous practitioners within the community and indigenous patients in an ongoing discussion of how psychiatry should change to be relevant to indigenous people. We monitored our own process in an autoethnographic fashion.Results1. The typical DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) or ICDA (International Classification of Diseases) categories were difficult to apply to the lives of many of these patients, given the high levels of trauma both experienced and transmitted epigenetically (inter-generational trauma). A power-threat-meaning framework appeared to be a more useful adjunct to these classifications along with trauma-informed perspectives. 2. Conventional cognitive behavior therapy was less accepted given its emphasis on rational thinking, while narrative approaches were more successful, given the widespread uses of stories and storytelling in these cultures and the emphasis on relationship as more important than rationality. 3. Trained peer counselors were very helpful. 4. Bringing culture (language, songs, ceremonies, elders, arts) into treatment was highly desirable.ConclusionsPsychiatric services to indigenous and immigrant communities should focus on empowerment through community-based, participatory methods, facilitating local problem solutions, and involving traditional elders, local government, and other stakeholders.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage

Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage

PLACEBO OR REALITY? A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE PSYCHOLOGY UNDERPINNING INDIGENOUS HEALING AMONG THE MAUNGWE PEOPLE IN MAKONI DISTRICT IN ZIMBABWE

This article examines the psychology underpinning indigenous healing among the Maungwe People in Makoni District. It interrogates what indigenous healing is, the psychology used by indigenous healers in the management of diseases, health models used in indigenous healing, and how psychology relates to culture. Lastly, the study looks at the efficacy or myth of indigenous medicine. The population of the indigenous healers in Makoni was twenty-nine ZINATHA registered indigenous healers and herbalists. A sample of ten indigenous healers was used. A purposive sampling method and multi-sited ethnography were used. In-depth interviews and observations were the data generation methods used. Results showed that indigenous healers use various ways that have psychological implications for the patient, such as the use of animal skin or black, white, or red clothes thrown over their shoulders when they are carrying out their healing activities. Other indigenous healers put a special head-gear called “ngundu” on their heads. The “ngundu,” which has black feathers stuck around it, is worn when getting into “matare,” a process done by indigenous healers to ascertain why the patient is suffering from a certain disease. The use of divining equipment called ‘Hakata’ also has a psychological effect. The results also show that indigenous medicine is effective, as it has been used for centuries to treat various diseases. It was recommended that trainee indigenous medicinal practitioners should also master the psychological rituals which are used in the indigenous healing process.

Sustainable energy for national climate change, food security and employment opportunities: Implications for Nigeria

This paper looks into the issues around renewable energy with a view to identify the opportunities for Nigeria and critically review the nation's renewable energy policy vis-à-vis the efforts and achievement of governments and indigenous practitioners. It identified the inherent opportunities of renewable energy resources at ameliorating the incidents of climate change and global warming and also surveyed international statistics on the relationships between energy and renewable energy adoption, national development, population explosion, job creation and rural-urban integration. It found out that for Nigeria to sustain economic growth especially as it relates to agriculture and food security, renewable energy for power generation must be included in the nation's rural development plan. It also demonstrated that renewable energy poses an opportunity for mitigating the nation's contributions to anthropogenic climate change.

African Indigenous Knowledge and Practices to Combat Covid-19 Pandemic

Indigenous knowledge and practices suffer marginalisation when it comes to seeking solutions to social problems. The world misses out on the richness of this knowledge and practices and role that they can play. This qualitative existential phenomenological study explored experiences of African indigenous knowledge holders and practitioners on their views regarding solutions towards COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews were conducted through WhatsApp and face-to-face with ten participants and data were analysed thematically. The findings show African knowledge and practices that could combat COVID-19 in terms of restrictions, heat related remedies and plant related remedies, and how these knowledge and practices can be applied through ancestral, environmental, metaphysical and generational modes. Africa and the world could benefit from how indigenous people respond to diseases such as COVID-19 and adopt/adapt some of these knowledge and practices; indigenous knowledge and practices have a role to play by contributing solutions to the world’s problems.