Defining and Preserving the Well-Being of the Cree: waamistikushiiu v. miyupimaatisiiun :: Essays Papers

Defining and Preserving the Well-Being of the Cree waamistikushiiu v. miyupimaatisiiun For the Cree, health is more than individual physiology. health is definied by miyupimaatisiiun, a complex word that refers to an individuals enriching connection to his community and his infixed environment. Miyupimaatisiiun can be interpreted as being-alive well, a condition that includes the sanctuary and security of family, friends and tribal members, as well as for the resources the Cree depend on to survive. Thus, the health of the Cree becomes a semipolitical entity, defined through challenging environmental, social, political as well as physiological threats to traditional life. Politcially, the term signifies the ability to negotiate the obstacles that threaten the survival of the Cree (57). To understand the significance of Cree health, there is frequently to be said for cultural definition through opposition. The key ingredient of waamistikushiiu, or whiteman health, that distinct ly separates it from the miyupimaatisiiun is its numbing divorce from the earth. Removed from a life style of hunting and dwelling in the bush, waamistikushiiu life is by and large unconnected to the intimate domain-life story of the Cree people. Without such a story, whiteman health is alien and stratagem in Adelsons Being Alive Well. Perhaps some significantly, waamistikushiiu health stubbornly denies the existence of other definitions of human health. Defined by individual physiology, waamistikushiiu health is universally evaluated against simple biomedical standards and determined in proportion to a relative absence of disease(5). Cree miyupimaatisiiun, however, is not a biased and incomplete standard of fitness, but a complex sour comprising social relations, land and cultural identity (4). In Whapmagoostui, accidental and unsafe deaths, drug and alcohol related illnesses, infectious diseases, and chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cancer are all found- somet imes in disproportionate number-in autochthonous communities across Canada (14). By waamistikushiiu standards, such health conditions are deplorable notwithstanding for the Cree, these ailments readily signify a deeper, perpetual ache of land and shade. For centuries, influences of waamistikushiiu culture have altered Cree living. Devastating fur trades, land usurpation, mercury intoxication in fish and waterways, and flooding damage are lonesome(prenominal) a few of the casualties to Cree life in the whitemans pursuit of happiness. As the only way to acquire miyupimaatisiiun strength is to eat Cree food, and the only way to lead Cree food is by hunting, the Cree are bound to defy whiteman devastation of their land and assert rights to survival on their own terms (94).