Creating and Sustaining Positive Pathsto Health by Restoring Traditional-BasedIndigenous Health-Education Practices

Abstract

This article presents some textual and graphic reflections on the epistemological linksbetween health and education and the potential egalitarian influence of applicationson policy and practice in dominant institutions toward the well-being of all. Thereflections arise from an intense examination of the stories and processes of a researchproject with a group of 22 people who are traditional-based Indigenous healthpractitioners or their facilitators, or clients. The focus of the project was to examinehow the access and provision of traditional-based health services could be enhanced inVancouver by and for Indigenous people. By an extension of Indigenous wholisticprinciples and with consideration of the role that traditional knowledge-holders playin the health of Indigenous peoples, it becomes apparent that traditional-based healthand education practices are so intertwined that they can be considered inextricable.From this understanding, a responsibility arises to ensure the well-being ofIndigenous (and other) people by promoting epistemological pluralism and byrestoring traditional-based principles and practices in the mainstream.