Why the new indigenous public health program is important

I was fortunate to be present at the launch of the world’s first indigenous public health Masters program yesterday at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Ms. Diaz, a doctoral student at the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work, received a standing ovation for her remarks, an excerpt of which she generously allowed to publish on the Independent. The program is led by Dr. Maile Taualii, to whom Tressa refers. – IH

My name is Tressa Perez Diaz and I am a doctoral student at the Myron B.Thompson School of Social Work. At the graduate level, we have many opportunities to take classes in other departments and I have had the good fortune to be in a few classes in public health because my research interest is in addressing cancer disparities for the Chamoru and for our Micronesian cousins, some of whom I am very pleased to see here at our gathering today.

First of all, I’m assuming you can hear me – all I can hear is my heart beating loud and fast in my head. I think to settle myself I’ll just look out at all the students here – and I’m just going to imagine that you are all up here with me. 

And actually, I do believe that this is where we all should be. Our indigenous communities should be up front, at the center, and visible. Our visibility is important! And when we are made invisible by lack of health data, lack of recognition, or when conversations about health and disease in our communities take place without us present – then we must enter those conversations in health and health research, be at the center, talk about what is happening in our communities, and define what we consider successful outcomes.

One of the things that I like about being in Maile’s class is that we discuss health, ethics, politics, and law – in the context of indigenous health – and healthcare policies as they’ve affected indigenous peoples across five nations. It gives us a place to tell our stories about health in our communities, about land and the ocean, and about what we believe.  For many of us, what we learned at home about how to be well is not what we’ve been taught and tested on in school. What do we believe about our health? In this day of advancing health technologies like genetics and clinical trials, where have we been hurt? What do we believe?

And – what would we like for our future?

After all, our friends and our families in our communities are not merely statistics on cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. We are resilient and strong. And we want to thrive in our health, in our bodies, and our minds.

I am indigenous. I am a mixed heritage Chamoru and Filipina woman born and raised on the island of Guam – in Chamoru – on Guahan. Like many Chamoru, other Micronesians, Native Hawaiians, First Nations people, American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, and many other indigenous populations – like many of them, I have lost many family members to disease.

In May 1996 my father was diagnosed with 4th stage colon cancer. Previously he had been mistakenly diagnosed with having a hernia for almost a year. He was diagnosed with cancer in May 1996. Seven months later, in January 1997, he died. He was 48 years old. I was 24 years old at the time. I have healed from this and we have all done our best to heal from these losses in our lives. But it is painful for me to consider that when 25 years has passed since his death – I will have lived longer without him than I have lived with him.

This is why I do what I do. And I think many of us in health services understand this. We bring our personal inspirations and professional perspectives to our work.

One person in our family lost to disease is a lot. But when it is many of our people lost to disease, when it is many of our people historically lost to disease, when it is many of our people disproportionately lost to disease – we know. We know that we must come together, we must rise to this enormous and necessary task, and we must learn from one another.

That is why this program in Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Health is important. It gives us the opportunity to come together and contradict the illusion that our indigenous communities are invisible.

Thank you for listening to my story today.