Indigenous knowledge can help make health care more sustainable in the North, study says

A new research paper based on interviews with elders across the N.W.T. says Indigenous traditional knowledge could help make the circumpolar health care system more environmentally sustainable.

Nicole Redvers is a member of the Deninu K'ue First Nation in the N.W.T. and the primary author of the paper recently published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal. She is also an associate professor and director of Indigenous Planetary Health at Western University.

The team of researchers interviewed six Indigenous elders in the N.W.T. in February 2023 about land-based knowledge, their experience of colonialism, and how northern health-care systems have become largely disconnected from ideas about the environment and planetary health.

According to the paper, "land-based knowledge" refers to connecting with the land for health and well-being, and that involves "taking care of the Earth." 

The researchers organized a sharing circle with the elders to hear their perspectives on the past, present and future. The elders described how colonization forcefully disconnected Indigenous communities from the land and environment, which in turn created "health systems that were disconnected from the health of the planet."

The elders also described how health systems today remain "situated in Earth-destructive economic systems," and that Indigenous people "continue to receive clinical care that is divorced from the health of Mother Earth."

The researchers argue that disconnecting health care systems from environmental concerns means that Indigenous people often have little influence over health policy.  

"Right now, in the North, Indigenous peoples do not have any control over the health system," said Redvers.

As an example, she pointed to a recent decision to dissolve the N.W.T. Health and Social Services Authority's leadership council and replace it with a public administrator.

That move has been criticized by some Indigenous leaders in the territory, including the former chair of the leadership council and member of the Dene Nation, James Antoine. He's worried about how decisions will meet the health needs of the community without a means to understand what's happening in the community.

"Important health and social services decisions ... should flow from people in the communities to their chair to the health board and to the programs and services available," says Antoine, "in the North, that has been cut off." 

Antoine says he still practices "traditional Indigenous healing," and that includes using medicinal plants to treat ailments and nourish the body. 

The research paper's authors argue that Indigenous knowledge, both practical and spiritual, could be applied to help make health care systems more environmentally sustainable.

"Our health systems are very disconnected from the contexts around them. Not only in regard to our Indigenous community culture, but also in terms of the health of the planet," says Redvers.

As climate change and biodiversity loss continue, the researchers say there is "increasing interest" in how Indigenous knowledge can help address those problems.

"The land, the waters, the animals around us have been integral to our health. Yet, currently, right now, we don't really see that in health systems," Redvers said.

"And from an elders' perspective, this is problematic in terms of our ability to think through solutions for climate change."

Redvers says the North is particularly sensitive to health-care and climate change challenges, so that means it's well-positioned to set an example on how to solve these issues.

"I look forward to the North being a beacon of hope and potential solutions for tackling some of our greatest challenges," she said.