Indigenous Health

The health of the natural world is required to sustain all life forms, as it provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. While the relationship between the natural world and humans is beneficial for our health on a biological level. For Indigenous peoples, the relationship with the land is much deeper as the environment is central to their mental and spiritual health and, as a result, physical health also.

For this reason, colonization has had a major impact on Indigenous peoples’ health as it dispossessed them of their territory, thus also taking away their autonomy and self-determination (LeftStreamed, 2016). For example, the documentary The Gifts from the Elders showed how European trappers moved into the communities …show more content…
I feel often times, the Western way of connecting with the environment is through having an appetitive outlook. For instance, in the documentary, Guardians of Eternity show that rather than seeing the blueberry fields and a habitat where people and animals live, the Giant Mine company saw the Yellowknife area as a great pile of resources that can be manipulated and transformed for profits and money (Shebafilms, 2012). This is a very dangerous way to look at nature and ecosystems as the majority of natural resources are non-renewable, therefore, these Indigenous “medicines” can never be restored once they are destroyed. Much like how the blueberry fields in Yellowknife are now gone and instead 237, 000 tonnes of arsenic being stored underground remain (Shebafilms, 2012). This has significantly impacted the Dene community that lives nearby, as it has become their responsibility to ensure that the Arsenic does not escape (Shebafilms, 2012). We as Canadians need to be more mindful of the effects these actions, and bridge the gap between our understandings and Indigenous peoples’ understanding of this health-environment relationship for a more sustainable