Abstract
In health discourses, Indigenous Healing is marginalized by the State itself, specifically coming from the Biomedicine health workers who would always uphold Biomedicine and stay silent towards indigenous healing. Silencing is also found in the information drives of health agencies, which positions indigenous healing as unfounded. The lack of concrete policies supporting indigenous healing further puts Biomedicine in a power-holding position and putting other health systems as merely “alternatives”. Despite this vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) to systematically- driven, hegemonic agendas, indigenous is thriving in the cultural assertions of IPs as they sustainably validate their values and cultural integrity. Their self-determination is manifested in their capacity to choose indigenous healing as the first option when met with health concerns. To ensure that indigenous healing science is innovated on and sustained, these are institutionalized in larger cultural practices. Indigenous healing is likewise privileged in environmental conservation practices of IPs. The environment is the space of healing if conserved. In the spirit of multiculturalism where various cultures are accommodated, it becomes essential to assert that humans and their cultures do not exist in isolation. Diversity should be embraced, differences should be accepted and understood. Discursive spaces espousing pluriversal epistemologies or multiple knowledges encapsulated in the concepts and practices of IPs, should be upheld and sustained.
Keywords: Cultural Assertions, Indigenous Healing, Indigenous Peoples, Silencing of IPs.