Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, is an interactive exhibition that examines concepts of health and medicine among contemporary American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawai’ians – the first exhibit to include a focus on the latter two populations.
With over one hundred interviews from individuals associated with Native communities all across the United States, the exhibition highlights Native peoples’ own voices as they speak about health and illness within their tribes, villages, and communities. Stories arise out of both the past and the present and show how the determinants of health for Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians are tied to community, the land, and spirit. Speakers describe how individual and community wellness were affected by the political and cultural events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Individual reflections show the impact of epidemics, federal legislation, the loss of land, and the inhibition of culture on the health of Native individuals and communities today. Collectively, these stories convey how Native people use both traditional and Western methods to enhance wellness, ultimately presenting an inspiring account of renaissance, recovery, and self-determination.
The National Library of Medicine, in consultation with Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, created the Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness exhibition. The fullsize exhibition premiered on October 5, 2011 at the main NLM building in Bethesda, Maryland, and it is currently on display there. The Native Voices website presents most of the exhibition content, and the exhibition’s many videos and interviews are also available via the free Native Voices app. (iPad users with an adequate Internet connection may download the app from the Apple iTunes store.)
We will be holding two programs as part of the exhibit tour:
- Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016: official opening of the exhibit, 4:00 pm, History of Medicine area, HSL (free and open to the public)
- Amy Lyons, Interim Director of HSL – welcome and introduction
- Jodi Maracle, Ph.D. student in the Department of Transnational Studies, will perform a traditional ceremony
- Dr. Margaret Moss, Assistant Dean of Inclusion and Diversity, School of Nursing, will deliver remarks
- Thursday, Mar. 3, 2016: Friends of HSL program – Panel Discussion featuring Dr. Moss as moderator, and local Native Americans discussing their views – contact Linda Lohr 829-5737 for more information.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) developed and produced Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, in partnership with NLM, tours the exhibition to America’s libraries.”
We hope to see you listening to the interviews and exploring the poster information. This is a unique opportunity – don’t miss it!
Contact Pamela Rose 829-5722 to schedule group tours and for more information.