Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 276 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Healthy communities: What is 'social prescribing'?

    Social prescribing, where medical practitioners encourage patients to look beyond medicine to remedy their issues, can lessen the demand for medical services and medications. In the UK, Denmark, and Canada, doctors are piloting programs in which healthcare providers can recommend community and social activities to patients. In Canada, for example, the Alliance for Healthier Communities is integrating activities like knitting at its community centers. In Denmark, doctors can present cultural activities to patients suffering from moderate depression.

    Read More

  • When public lands become tribal lands again

    After decades of failed legislation, over 17,000 acres of public land was finally restored to the Umpqua Tribe with the passage of the Western Oregon Tribal Fairness Act. The land was a constant source of tension between the tribe, the government, and environmental conservation groups, “under the pretext that Native peoples didn’t know how to manage them.” But in December 2018, with the passage of the Act and the return of 3% of the land that was originally seized, a sense of justice was felt.

    Read More

  • Tribal communities in Michigan use traditional knowledge to tackle modern public health crisis

    In Michigan, infant mortality for Native American babies is almost triple the rate of infant mortality for white babies. To combat this troubling reality, tribal communities are working to reintegrate traditional knowledge into parenting practices, starting with culturally aware breastfeeding classes. The program is helping to ensure that indigenous communities and families have the resources they need to keep their babies safe and healthy.

    Read More

  • Forget Game of Thrones: The master of the cliffhanger is back

    Building community around storytelling preserves cultural heritage. Across Lebanon, individuals and institutions like the Lebanese Ministry of Culture and the Theatre Monnot in Beirut are working to preserve oral culture as a medium for storytelling. Initiatives, including the long-running International Storytelling Festival and Beirut’s Hakaya, bring together storytellers, known as hakawati and hakawatiye.

    Read More

  • Bok choy and bread fruit: How traditional crops fit a food secure future

    Organizations like Ho’oulu ka ‘Ulu are reintroducing small-scale farmers to breadfruit — a traditional Hawaiian starchy fruit that fell out of style following the rise of plantation farming and colonialism. Growers are taught how to cultivate and sell the fruit, and their network of now 200 farmers are helping to keep part of their culture alive. Similarly, in California a Food Roots program connects farmers growing traditional Asian produce like bok choy to local businesses and markets to provide accessibility to culturally relevant fresh produce.

    Read More

  • Punjabi weddings turn slim

    With the support of the Samaj committee, a local NGO, more and more Punjabi communities are downsizing their weddings. The events are traditionally expensive affairs, signifying pride and status, but for many, they are an expense that has led to debt, and even suicide. The committee reaches out to villages and families, suggesting they skip the dowry, and once one family does it, others follow suit.

    Read More

  • These Indigenous Women Are Reclaiming Stolen Land in the Bay Area

    The Sogorea Te Land Trust is an intertribal women-led organization that is working to reclaim ownership of land in the Bay Area that Ohlone people have lived on for centuries. They regained access to the land through a partnership with another local grassroots organization called Planting Justice, who will eventually hand over the land to Sogorea Te for free once it is fully paid off. Sogorea Te believes that the root of a lot of Indigenous problems is the dispossession of their land, so they hope to use this land to rebuild resiliency and a way of life for and with their people.

    Read More

  • How Tribes Are Harnessing Cutting-Edge Data to Plan for Climate Change

    For many tribal and indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest, the impact of climate changes has already become terrifyingly clear. As communities attempt to plan and adapt to new environmental conditions, the Climate Impacts Group at University of Washington is working to provide hyper-localized data that can help predict changes and allow communities to change accordingly, and in line with cultural traditions.

    Read More

  • Native justice: How tribal values shape Judge Abby's court

    Across the country, tribal courts are seeking to break the cycle of recidivism and instead focus their efforts on rehabilitation and community. Judge Abinanti’s Yurok Tribal Court in California applies traditional Yurok values – responsibility, renewal, and restorative justice – in a way that builds compassion and addresses the deep trauma held by the people entering her court.

    Read More

  • This Library Takes an Indigenous Approach to Categorizing Books

    Reconsidering the ways in which subject headings sort and present knowledge can help address systemic racism. The X̱wi7x̱wa Library at the University of British Columbia is rethinking the way libraries organize and place value on different forms of knowledge. By eschewing the Dewey Decimal Classification, which obscures and relegates indigenous literature to folklore, the library catalogs work geographically and by the name of the indigenous community. Librarians assist visitors, creating a welcoming atmosphere and forming relationships with communities and individuals.

    Read More