Abstract
"First breath, first teacher: An indigenous perspective on the inextricable links between space and place, embodiment, and health"
-Ramona Beltrán
Over the last several decades space and place have emerged as important concepts and how they are theorized is beginning to shape many policies and practices that impact our daily lives. While there is disciplinary divergence on the definitions, meanings, and impacts of space and place in the world there is some theoretical consensus. An overall summary of mainstream understanding refers to space as an empty contextual container existing a priori but without meaning while human interactions, cognitive processes, and experiences fill the empty container creating place: in other words, place makes space, and people make place. In this manner of visualizing space and place, there is an implicit, purely western understanding of space as a blank slate and human possession or control over the process, production, and objectification of place. An indigenous perspective differs from this by acknowledging the role of ancestral knowledge and spiritual cosmologies in conceptualizing space and place.
Indigenous worldviews recognize the interdependency between human and
nature, the physical and spiritual worlds, the ancestors and the
future generations; all living things, animate or inanimate are bound
by a connection to everything else. For indigenous peoples, the
ultimate location of space and place is embedded into a profound
relationship with the earth. The earth (or land) is both literally
and figuratively the first and final teacher for understanding our
world, communities, families, selves, and bodies. It is the
metaphorical vehicle of our being. In this sense indigenous peoples
emerge from space and place as opposed to producing space and place
from a blank slate of experience.
This integrative paper contributes to the literature by infusing an
indigenous perspective of space and place into research investigating
the health and wellness of indigenous groups. The overall purpose of
this paper is to construct an alternative framework for conceptualizing space and place. I begin with a review of these theoretical concepts and how they are conceptualized in mainstream and
indigenous epistemologies. Using theories of historical trauma and
embodiment, I connect these concepts to a framework that appreciates
the simultaneous impacts of colonization and historical trauma on the
land and consequently the health and bodies of indigenous people. I
conclude by offering strategies for decolonizing indigenous
epistemologies, knowledge production, health research, and health
practices including reclaiming and normalizing indigenous
epistemologies, creating new pedagogies that embrace indigenous or
alternative views, and reintegrating land-based ethics into research and practice.
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