Is hunting still healthy? strengths and limitations of dominant discourses used to examine contemporary indigenous land-health Interrelationships

Abstract

Around the world, Indigenous people continue to experience some of the greatest health disadvantages. As the United Nations Second Decade of the World's Indigenous People's (2005-2014) draws to a close, questions are still being asked about how best to remedy this situation. One approach is research and policy responses focused on engagement in land-based practices (LBPs) - from hunting, and fishing, to wild food gathering, ceremony and land care. Participating in these LBPs is considered to be fundamentally healthy, for both people and the places in which they occur. However, the evidence in the international literature is disjointed, and in some cases, contradictory. Informed by a transdisciplinary approach to the topic, this project sought to organise and critique this disparate body of evidence. The aim was to place what was presented in the literature in a broader discussion of how 'Indigenous health' has been constructed, and the implications these constructions have on the ways 'Indigenous health' is measured, understood and promoted. With a large Canadian Indigenous epidemiological health survey used as an illustrative case study (Nunavik Inuit Health Survey), this research examined the strengths and limitations of the current dominant discourses in 'Indigenous health' as they related to LBP participation. The data analyses identified socio-demographic characteristics of those participating in one of the major LBPs in this region, i.e. hunting, and examined these against key health indicators and behaviours associated with cardiovascular risk, social capital, and community connectedness. Those who hunted most frequently in these communities were few, mainly older men, and apparently healthy on a number of key biomedical indicators. However, they did not report any greater level of satisfaction with their life than those who hunted less frequently or never, were no more physically active than those who hunted less frequently, but were more involved and connected to their communities, and much more likely to share and prepare the country foods they caught. These frequent hunters comprised a specific group, which were a distinct minority in these communities, and this finding raised a number of questions about the ongoing place of LBP participation in this setting, including how research and policy should best respond. When the analyses findings were critiqued against the broader landscape of contemporary 'Indigenous health' constructions, these questions became more complex. It became apparent that current research emphasis on individual human health indicators needed to be considered alongside the less metric-amenable issues of identity politics, generational aspirations, and impacts of technologies. In addition, ecosystem factors, such as the consequences of climate changes, diminishing stocks of preferred country foods, and extractive industries on the 'health of the land', required inclusion if Indigenous land-health interrelationships were to be adequately understood. This research argues for a rethinking of 'Indigenous health', and the current limiting, and problematic, approaches to investigating the issues that impact it. The challenge is to both acknowledge the dominant discourses that exist, and extend beyond them in order to develop sustainable, and respectful, engagements that consider the fundamental interdependence between ecosystems and human 'health'.