A Voyage to Indigenous Health
Lesson one is the starting point of your journey to exploring the cultural dimensions of Hawaiian, Inuit, Navajo, and Micronesian indigenous populations. We all live in a global community where cultures are interwoven in societies and practices are shared on a wider base through present day technology and social media. Lesson one will touch upon your self-identity and the three factors that shape your behavior. Only by knowing oneself can one understand the vast expressions of indigenous populations and their cultural health considerations. In turn, Oscar Wilde once said “To know anything about oneself one must know all about others” and the past generations of indigenous populations could certainly stand as evidence that they have become a community of indifferences based on the historical and present day generational health disparities.
Culture is like a tapestry comprised of countless threads, each of which represents a face and voice from an indigenous population like the different colors and fibers in a tapestry. Nurses’ awareness of the diverse cultural fibers understand the complexities that indigenous populations historically and presently experience. “We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color” (Maya Angelo).
To begin your journey of cultural exploration, one must find out about themselves first and their social identity that influences their behavior.