Manitoba politician, author and musician Wab Kinew has been telling scientists and health care professionals for years that culture is medicine.
Epidemics of obesity, diabetes, infectious diseases and suicide that plague First Nation children across Canada are complex and multi-faceted. Yet government solutions often focus on simplistic bio-medical approaches — when they address the crises at all — and too often ignore the cultural strategies proposed by indigenous leaders themselves, which address indigenous relationships with language, tradition and land.