Eco-Health and Aboriginal Health: A review of Common Ground

Connecting people, place and health

A new alliance between ecohealth and holistic approaches to Aboriginal health

The health and well-being of Aboriginal communities is closely linked to connection with the land.

Margot Parkes is Canada Research Chair in Health, Ecosystems and Society at the University of Northern B.C. and author of a new NCCAH review that identifies potential common ground between ecohealth and holistic approaches to Aboriginal health. Parkes is at the forefront of a new generation of research and practice bridging divides between social and environmental views on health.In the NCCAH review, she notes the current tendency to emphasize the environment as a source of illness and contaminants, focused on such issues as hazards in food, water and soil. “This leads to a view of the natural world as a source of illness rather than a basis for life.”

She also notes that analyses of health inequities tend to overlook the role of the physical environment as a fundamental factor.

Building on the strengths of both Indigenous knowledge and ecohealth is “fertile ground that could help foster a future for Aboriginal communities where ecosystems, equity, health and culture can flourish,” she suggests.

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