Black to the Future: Making the Case for Indigenist Health Humanities

Area of Science:

• Health Humanities
• Indigenous Studies
• Transdisciplinary Research

Background:

• Significant knowledge gaps hinder efforts to address Indigenous health inequality.
• Current approaches lack sustainable, relational, and ethical frameworks for advancing Indigenous health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Indigenist Health Humanities as an innovative research field.
• To foster an intellectual collective for bridging knowledge gaps in Indigenous health.
• To develop a deeper understanding of the human experience of health within Indigenous contexts.

Main Methods:

• Integrating health sciences with the humanities.
• Centering Indigenous scholarship and perspectives.
• Facilitating transdisciplinary collaboration among Indigenist researchers.

Main Results:

• Establishment of Indigenist Health Humanities as a nascent field.
• Identification of enablers for building a transdisciplinary research collective.
• Development of a framework for a more sustainable, relational, and ethical approach to Indigenous health research.

Conclusions:

• Indigenist Health Humanities offers a novel approach to understanding and improving Indigenous health.
• This field promotes a collaborative, ethical, and culturally grounded pathway to advancing Indigenous health outcomes.
• The transdisciplinary collective is crucial for addressing complex health inequalities faced by Indigenous peoples.