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Inuit Elders, male and female, from Nunavut, Nunavik, Labrador and the Inuvialuit regions, were asked to guide and participate in a workshop on traditional knowledge during the Inuit Health Information Initiative conference in June 2001, in Inuvik. The Elders talked about traditional medicine, health and suggested ways to pass on their knowledge and how to work with researchers. The following is part of a transcript of discussions during the workshop.
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In the past few years, traditional knowledge has become a more important component of health.
People have been coming up from the South and interviewing Elders about their way of life for years. That information must be stored somewhere - I wish we had access to it ourselves. It should be kept in a collective area where we can all benefit from it.
My grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, but she lived to be 105. Her parents were the leaders of the camp she grew up in, and she inherited their role.
Herbal Medicines
The European or 'southern' physicians have been taught and treated by many of us, as though they have powers similar to God. We follow their diagnosis and their prescriptions without question, even if we know of a traditional cure that is just as effective for our parents and sometimes even better. Both sides would probably benefit if the new physicians coming up would have a cultural orientation to better understand whom they're treating.
The South has at least ten different kinds of Aspirin, which many Inuit are starting to use because Qallunaat doctors recommend it, but the Inuit had their own way of dealing with fevers, cuts and pain.
The Elders were the doctors and physicians of the Inuit long before the southern professionals arrived.
In Labrador such information is stored and shared. We learned to do with what we had, and it worked well. We knew that juniper branches had medicinal value when ground and then boiled into a tea. We'd pick a lot of branches during the summer and fall to store for the winter.
I remember too, something we used to call niharaluk - it was an old black moss that was also picked and boiled into a tea. It stinks...