The last frontier: isolation and Aboriginal health

Using the evidence of articles on Native and Inuit health in Canadian medical and public health periodicals, this paper will show that medical professionals defined Aboriginal health in terms of isolation. Notions of isolation influenced how Aboriginal bodies were depicted as "primitive" and "susceptible," while images of empty, isolated territory inspired a vision for expanded federal services. These services were provided in part in the hopes that health programs would assist national goals to integrate "isolated" Aboriginal people as citizens. Last, a discourse on isolation served to sanctify those medical professionals who worked with native and Inuit people.