" Rethinking how Indigenous wellness and health equity relate to 'culture': Insights from Karoroan, a multiethnic community "
▲Date: 2025.04.29,1-3 pm
▲Venue: R802,8F, Teaching & Research Building, Shuang Ho Campus, TMU
▲Speaker: Dr. Ying-tzu Chang
Assistant Professor of Department of Education and Human Potentials Development, College of Education,National Dong Hwa University
▲Registration ─ Please contact me on GIMH Facebook Messenger.
Abstract
In Taiwan’s biomedical and public health discourses, 'Indigenous culture' is often framed problematically as both the cause of and solution to health disparity. Drawing insights from health initiatives at Karoroan, a community in eastern Taiwan with Sakizaya, Pangcah, Kavalan and Bunun residents, this talk examines how community pathways to wellness negotiates biomedical governmentality, local sociality and knowledge through exercise of cultural sovereignty. It offers a critique of state-centric imaginaries of Indigenous cultures where continual deprivation of self-determination is ongoing as a colonial determinant of health. This talk argues that to support Indigenous collective aspirations to wellness requires acknowledging Indigenous worldviews and health practices as valid and resourceful.