Seminar SERIES - Rachel Wilbur, PhD

“From Historical Trauma to Survivance: The Role of Agency in Combatting the Health Effects of Colonial Subjugation”

American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) collectively experience some of the greatest inequities across metrics of wellbeing of any population in the US. Increasing health equity for this population is not only a goal for diverse organizations and institutions, but in relation to health and federally recognized Tribes, it is also a trust responsibility of the US government. The root of contemporary AI/AN patterns of wellbeing extends beyond classic public health emphases on social determinants of health, and instead derives distally from histories of colonization and subsequent subjugation. Commonly referred to as “historical trauma,” intergenerational experiences of trauma and adversity have been shown to compound contemporary experiences like poverty, low educational attainment, and elevated rates of police violence and incarceration, contributing to the health inequities we see today. The most notable fact about the AI/AN contemporary experience, however, is not the presence of enduring inequities but the continued existence of the people themselves. Despite more than 500 years of continuous, systematic, and politically-sanctioned assaults, AI/ANs endure and in many ways thrive through practices both traditional and contemporary. Despite this, biomedical research and practice for AI/ANs continues to be overwhelmingly conducted through a deficit lens, focusing on perceived biological and behavioral inadequacies rather than structural origins of despair and strengths-based solutions, perpetuating narratives of pathology rather than thriving presence. Such practices compound historical and contemporary structural determinants of dis-ease and contribute to enduring inequity. Through this talk, we will explore the upstream contributors to contemporary AI/AN patterns of health as well as the current shift towards strengths-based approaches to promoting AI/AN wellbeing, including the emerging concept of survivance.