Decolonize for Health Justice

Indigenous Matriarch-led. Intergenerational. Beyond Equity.

Photo by Jarrette Werk, Aaniiih & Nakoda

Health Equity

Health Justice

The Indigenous Health Equity Institute (IHEI) envisions a world where Health Justice is not just an aspiration, but a reality for every community, informed by the richness of Indigenous values and the principles of justice and liberation.

Download IHEI’s informational flyer here.

Mission

Dedicated to advancing Health Justice using the power of Indigenous values, science, and wisdom.

Vision

Generations of thriving Indigenous peoples whose health and well-being are an expression of their culture, prosperity, and liberation.

Our roots are in Oregon, but our reach is nationwide.

IHEI emerged from community collaborations aimed at addressing the unmet needs of Indigenous communities in Oregon. Catalyzed by House Bill 4052, IHEI contributes to a movement that exposes the lasting impacts of settler colonialism and offers innovative approaches to public health rooted in Health Justice.

As we strengthen our community partnerships and expand our public health initiatives in Portland and surrounding counties and communities, IHEI anticipates bringing our Health Justice interventions to communities nationwide.

  • Public health, among other western dominant institutions, have historically considered social determinants of health that impact quality of life outcomes and risks to be limited to surface-level conditions, such as education access, physical environment, and economic stability. Local, regional, and national institutions, such as the Center for Disease Control, create whole departments, initiatives, curriculum and more based on this model of health. However, these factors, including racism and discrimination, are only symptoms of a larger, broader, deeper root cause of the system and condition of settler colonialism.

    When institutions fail to recognize colonialism as a determinant of health, this results in workforces and programs ill-equipped to address the harms created by settler systems. This gap extends across public health frameworks, methodologies, and policies, leaving communities and individuals to bear the brunt of these inequities. For Indigenous communities in particular, the lasting effects of settler colonialism remain profound, invisible, and unaddressed.

    Learn More about our Approach and our North Star.

  • The ideology and use of ‘health equity’ to describe the differences in health systems, structure, care delivery, and outcomes experienced by various groups and communities became popularized in the 1980s and beyond. Since then, health equity has been used as perhaps the only mechanism to intervene against inequities created by colonial systems and experienced by historically underrepresented and underserved communities. Without explicitly addressing colonialism, health equity initiatives often fall short, failing to dismantle the paradigms of oppression and genocide that continue to impact Indigenous communities. 

    Transforming public health systems to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and values using an Indigenous-led framework for Health Justice is a practical solution for creating culturally affirming approaches that address the root causes of health inequities. Without this shift, public health frameworks will continue reinforcing colonial harms, preventing meaningful progress toward justice.

    Learn more about our Health Justice interventions.

  • Indigenous values and knowledge ways have been systematically excluded from public health education and practice, resulting in the underrepresentation of Indigenous people in healthcare systems, compounded by a lack of understanding of Indigenous health needs. Indigenous values, such as respect, reciprocity, sovereignty, self-determination, healing, and resilience, offer teachings of being in good relationship with the self, each other, community, land, and all beings. We look toward these values as a guide and foundation for our programs, relationships, and development. 

    Indigenous people are intimately connected to the natural and spirit worlds. Thus, we have the medicine to counter the damages of settler colonialism. We safeguard our cultural practices to protect our sovereignty, but offer gifts to help create a world where everyone is safe, cared for, and well. A place where we can replace extractivism, labor, and capitalism with the values that uplift and actualize Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation. 

    Learn more about our values. 

IHEI is building healthier futures for all.

Using a Health Justice framework, IHEI has created our programs and interventions to address the failures of public health institutions and policies. We aim to move systems and communities closer to a more liberated, healthy, and safe future.

These are our core truths from which we have built our programs and interventions.

IHEI’s Health Justice Intervention Framework

Health Justice aims to examine, expose, and uproot the causes of disparity and systemic barriers by transforming systems and moving interventions beyond an equity approach.

Training & Technical Assistance

We train and support settler institutions, workforces, health advocates, and Indigenous community spaces to address and heal the lasting impacts of colonialism using Indigenous values and methodologies within public health systems.

Kinship, Advocacy, & Reciprocal Engagement

We integrate bridge-building and reciprocity-based practices to enhance good relationships between institutions and the communities they serve. We build the capacity of Indigenous community members and their allies to combat Indigenous erasure in public health and legislative systems through direct action power building and advocacy.

Tool & Curriculum Development

We create healing-justice curriculum and tools centered in Indigenous wisdom and science as best practices for Health Justice. We develop “fit to purpose” tools based on iterative processes of community consultation and review.

Community Care

We practice Indigenous Resurgence through restorative community building and youth leadership development. We foster this garden of ancestral love by creating and growing indigenous spaces for joy, safety, and sacred future-building.

Land Acknowledgement

The Indigenous Health Equity Institute honors and gives thanks to the ancestral and enduring guardianship of these lands by the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, Wasco, Chinook bands, and other nations who have stewarded and cared for this territory since time immemorial. We recognize the importance of building enduring relationships and practicing reciprocity as guests on these lands. We are dedicated to forging a future deeply rooted in the principles of Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous futurism, and LAND BACK.