Question #4 & #6 (part seven)

The conversation covered reflections on a course about indigenous perspectives in healthcare and medicine. Participants discussed the importance of incorporating indigenous knowledge into Western medical practices, building trust with indigenous communities, and respecting individual experiences. They emphasized the need for personalized care, equal partnerships with patients, and understanding diverse cultural perspectives. The course inspired them to be respectful visitors on indigenous lands and to acknowledge the significance of land acknowledgments in daily life. They advised future students to approach the course with curiosity, ask questions, and embrace discomfort for meaningful learning. So, I think we had some great conversations today about the course. Just going off of, like, we posted that we were going to talk about this course on our Instagram about a week ago. So, now we have – now we're going to the segment where – which we normally ask listeners to see if they have any questions for us. So, firstly, we have a question. It's just how the course – how – what we've learned from this course and what takeaways we have towards our life and perhaps our chosen professions. Since I'm the one leading this topic at the moment, I can go first. So, firstly, I wish to work in medicine and healthcare specifically, along with research. And I think many quotes and teachings from this course will be useful in my future. I hope to apply sort of, as a general thesis, the holistic perspective to healthcare, which focuses on garnering trust between indigenous peoples and research groups and healthcare groups and understanding corporate and indigenous ways of knowing into research and medicine. I think that it's the responsibility to spend time building and lifting relationships and partners to make an ethical space in research and medicine. And I think this course has really taught me how indigenous people go about, like, working through their ways of knowing and their practices and how to listen to them effectively. I think sort of incorporating deep listening and prioritization of relationality is important to be implemented into research in indigenous context, and I hope to do this in the future. I believe considering a holistic view and considering knowledge acquisition can be done through the senses is highly valuable to Western medicine and research practices and should be incorporated. I also think that there's many different aspects of indigenous healing that should be incorporated into Western medical practice and sort of create this combined ways of knowing. I think that sort of healing circles, medicine wheels, and sweat lodges are excellent candidates because they have specific indigenous teachings that are able to work in conjunction with Western medicine. Healing circles and medicine wheels allow us to consider all parts of health, especially mental health. A quote which kind of stands out to me is by Mick Gage, which is that the medicine wheel and the mind, body, emotions, and spirit has significance for the world of counseling and psychotherapy. And so I think that sort of considering people, as I sort of touched on this earlier a little bit, considering the person's entire whole personality and their whole being rather than simply treating their mental condition as a disease, a quote unquote, is a better way to go about it. I think this can be incorporated from indigenous ways of knowing to Western medical practices. I think also sweat lodges could be quite effective because they are sort of this place of physical and spiritual cleansing, as said by Mick Gage. And I think that this allows a person to experience deep emotions and can be very effective for sort of these therapy techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy, which incorporates understanding and expressing your deep emotions. Furthermore, based on the ICRT, which Kaia previously discussed, holistic healing, which considers spiritual, mental, as well as physical healing is key to adapting modern health care. And I believe helping to rebuild that trust between indigenous peoples and the Canadian health care system, which has previously, they've suffered many abuses in the past. And I believe that this sort of rebuilding of trust will be very helpful. So I hope that this, so this course has kind of taught me that this would be where I focus on if I do become a doctor. And also I hope this course will help me to think more inner, be better at reflecting on my future courses as I continue to pursue them. What do you guys think? Do you guys have any good answers to this question? Yeah, I totally agree. I also am looking at a job in health care, possibly going into medicine. And I think it's really imperative to gain a deep respect and understanding of the indigenous worldviews and also how Western medicine has affected it both good and bad. I think it's really important to acknowledge that there has been a lot of distrust with the system. There has been a lot of, honestly, just disrespect from like a Western standpoint towards the indigenous paradigm. So I think it's really important when you're seeing indigenous patients to really acknowledge the fact that the way that I might want to be treated as a doctor of the Western science might not be the way that they are hoping to be treated. And respecting that is equal. So I think that that's really important. And also to check for some conscious biases towards the Western practice and some conscious putting the Western on top. I think it's really important to check for that you're not projecting your own feelings or your own beliefs onto the patient. And I think that this course has really given me an understanding about how individualized each patient, each indigenous person, everybody is going to be. And I think that that is something that I can definitely pull from this course and put into my future career. And yeah. Kaya, do you have anything? Yeah. I think you both made amazing points. I would also like to pursue a career in healthcare. So I find those very applicable and relatable reflections for me. I really second your point of trying to make sure healthcare is tailored to different indigenous ways of healing and such. And like to build on that, the idea of individualization. Again, we talked about how we can't depend on indigeneity concepts and really making sure we're applying that more personalized or more individual touch to learning about somebody's past experience. So that's having a listening ear and being willing to ask those questions to make sure that we're really coming from a place of understanding their individual lived experiences and cultural experiences and perceptions. I think it's so important to incorporate their knowledge in that way. And kind of building on that, the idea of being led and not leading with your patient. I think often in medicine there's the idea of like kind of a power imbalance between the physician and the patient and that the physician views themselves as the knowledge keeper and the person with superior knowledge. And I think when working in more of like an indigenous basis knowing setting, it's important to treat your patient as an equal and somebody who also holds some very important knowledge and knowledge that might be presented in a very different way than you've been trained in. So I think keeping that in mind is definitely pertinent to me in the future. And kind of co-creating solutions with that patient and respecting their knowledge as equally as valid. Kind of again incorporating it to a seeing perspective. I also would really like to work in rural health care one day. And so I know that that often incorporates working with indigenous peoples, especially where I'm from in Saskatchewan. We have quite a few reserves around my home. And so really bringing those teachings towards that future practice is something I'm looking forward to. And I'm incredibly grateful for this course for teaching me that. A little bit more in my daily life. I think it means being a respectful visitor on not only the reserve directly adjacent to the town I live in. But I talked a bit about in my indigenous project at the very beginning of this semester being one of my biggest connections to indigenous knowledge. And really learning what it means for that land to hold knowledge. But also on the land that I live on day to day. Because while that's not legally marked indigenous land, it is indigenous land. And keeping that in mind as I live and dwell and go to school on these lands. And in the way that I practice it. That's a nice fun point, Kaya. I agree that it's certainly like in your day to day life from this course. I also take away that. Like when I go to Nose Hill for my mom to take my dog for a walk. I find that I will. Like I go to the Madisonville and I think about what we've learned from this course. And how important it was. And how this was indigenous land. And how it still is. And so I think it's very important for as I go about my daily life. To think about as Ella eloquently said. That these people have their DNA in this land. And I think it's very important to remember that. Yeah, I completely agree. Like kind of to bring it back to the start. The land acknowledgement is something that I really took in my personal life. When I am running things for extracurriculars. And we do a land acknowledgement at the beginning. I've tried to shift from just our classic land acknowledgement. To taking it further and stepping into why we're doing this land acknowledgement. And what it means to me. What it means to the other people leading these seminars. So I think that that's really important. It's something I've also taken in my personal life. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great application. I think we can move on to our next question from one of our readers here. So what advice would you give to a friend planning to take this course? I guess we have some people who plan on taking this course. What do you guys think? Ella, do you have any points? I think my first thing would be to go in curious. And don't be afraid to ask questions. I think it's very scary sometimes to ask those difficult questions. Because you might be scared of sounding too controversial. Or maybe just too uncomfortable. But I think Ramona does a really great job of creating a safe space where you want to ask these questions. And she gives a personal opinion and a personal insight of what an Indigenous perspective is. Which I think is something really important. And you don't get that opportunity outside of the classroom very often. So I think, especially as someone coming from a non-Indigenous background, it's really a great opportunity to just learn more in a safe and open environment. And you get to learn so much if you're just open and curious and wanting to learn. I totally agree. I think I share many of those same points. As we talked about earlier, the sharing circle, the passionate circle. So I really felt like it's really good to go with an open mind. Be confident. By the end of the week, I felt like I really knew the people I was taking this course with. Which is very different compared to other courses. And she certainly creates that environment. I would also say, as Eloquently said, to approach the course with an open mind. Because this course, Learning about Indigenous Ways of Knowing, can go against, as we talked about, many of our potential beliefs you may have previously had if you were raised in a Christian or Western background. I think this course can be very eye-opening to people from those backgrounds. I also think it would be best to listen and try to be empathetic to Indigenous Ways of Knowing. And try to constantly reflect upon how that applies to yourself and how it applies to all around you. So you can understand your own internal relationship to this course, along with how Indigenous peoples might have their relationship to this course if they were to take it as well. I also think you should try to change your perspective and imagine the stories that they are told. And that these stories that we are taught are created to teach people rather than to simply entertain. And so Indigenous Ways of Knowing, although it can be often story-based, which can be very entertaining, understanding the underlying teachings and the importance that these stories have to the people. I remember the nappy story, which I found very amusing, which Dr. Beattie talked about repeatedly. I found that amusing, however, is also an important lesson on chaos and negative acts and such. So I think that it's important to try to apply these stories to yourself and who they were originally designed for. Yeah, I really agree with that, Sam. Especially your last point there, to really think deeply about and pay attention to the stories. Because they're not just fun or anecdotal. They're not just examples, but they're the lessons themselves, especially in Indigenous Ways of Knowing. It is orally transmitted. So these stories and the way they're told by the storyteller holds so much value. So really lean into that and really take time to interpret all those little details and how they make you feel. Lean into challenging your own worldviews and learning how different perspectives can coexist in respect to one another. And then I just think one of the most impactful things is to take notes on how concepts feel, not just what they mean. This class isn't really as much about definitions, but more about knowledge processes and the way that impacts us in our day-to-day lives and how we interpret those, how we grapple with those, how we criticize some of our previous actions and learn from those. So note that thought process and that learning process that you're going through, and really take time to reflect on each of those pieces. I think it's really important. Not just academically, but also personally. Awesome. So I think that's all the callers we have time for today. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to our podcast this week on Indigenous 303, Indigenous Ways of Knowing with Dr. Ramona Beatty. I had such a great time with my fellow co-hosts here today. Make sure that you tune in next week where we'll be discussing holiday break. Thank you.