Indigenous Values and Health Systems Stewardship in Circumpolar Countries.
Susan Chatwood, Francois Paulette, G Ross Baker, Astrid M A Eriksen, Ketil Lenert Hansen, Heidi Eriksen, Vanessa Hiratsuka, Josée Lavoie, Wendy Lou, Ian Mauro, James Orbinski, Nathalie Pambrun, Hanna Retallack, Adalsteinn Brown
Author Information
Susan Chatwood: Institute for Circumpolar Health Research, Yellowknife, NT X1A 3X7, Canada. chatwood@ualberta.ca.
G Ross Baker: Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada. ross.baker@utoronto.ca.
Astrid M A Eriksen: Department of Community Medicine, The Artic University of Norway, 1909 Tromsø, Norway. astrid.eriksen@medisin.uio.no.
Ketil Lenert Hansen: Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare (RKBU North), Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, 1909 Tromsø, Norway. ketil.lenert.hansen@uit.no.
Heidi Eriksen: Health Care Centre, Municipality of Utsjoki, 99981 Utsjoki, Finland. heidi.eriksen@utsjoki.fi.
Vanessa Hiratsuka: Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA. VHiratsuka@SouthcentralFoundation.com. ORCID
Josée Lavoie: Manitoba First Nations-Centre for Aboriginal Health Research, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada. Josee.Lavoie@umanitoba.ca.
Wendy Lou: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T3M7, Canada. wendy.lou@utoronto.ca.
Ian Mauro: Department of Geography, University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9, Canada. i.mauro@uwinnipeg.ca.
James Orbinski: Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T3M7, Canada. orbinski@yorku.ca.
Nathalie Pambrun: National Aboriginal Council of Midwives, Montreal, QC H8R 3R9, Canada. nathaliepambrun@gmail.com.
Hanna Retallack: Institute for Circumpolar Health Research, Yellowknife, NT X1A 3X7, Canada. hretallack@gmail.com.
Adalsteinn Brown: Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada. adalsteinn.brown@utoronto.ca.
Circumpolar regions, and the nations within which they reside, have recently gained international attention because of shared and pressing public policy issues such as climate change, resource development, endangered wildlife and sovereignty disputes. In a call for national and circumpolar action on shared areas of concern, the Arctic states health ministers recently met and signed a declaration that identified shared priorities for international cooperation. Among the areas for collaboration raised, the declaration highlighted the importance of enhancing intercultural understanding, promoting culturally appropriate health care delivery and strengthening circumpolar collaboration in culturally appropriate health care delivery. This paper responds to the opportunity for further study to fully understand indigenous values and contexts, and presents these as they may apply to a framework that will support international comparisons and systems improvements within circumpolar regions. We explored the value base of indigenous peoples and provide considerations on how these values might interface with national values, health systems values and value bases between indigenous nations particularly in the context of health system policy-making that is inevitably shared between indigenous communities and jurisdictional or federal governments. Through a mixed methods nominal consensus process, nine values were identified and described: humanity, cultural responsiveness, teaching, nourishment, community voice, kinship, respect, holism and empowerment.
