The Arctic Institute Health and Wellbeing Series 2025: Introduction

Landscape in Nunavut. Photo: U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Canada

Experiencing good health and wellbeing (e.g. associated physical and mental wellness) is one of the foundational facets of the human experience, however, not all communities measure and experience health and wellness in the same way. Often, Western biomedical approaches, rooted in Euro-Christian origins of Descartes’ mind-body dualism perpetuate colonial legacies (and settler colonialism) dominating treatment and care plans without engagement with local knowledge. This is an issue, particularly in Indigenous communities where knowledge and understanding of ways to treat ‘illness’ is based in an approach rooted in culture and history, where wellbeing is fostered from both mental and physical aspects – not a compartmentalized medicalised one.

The Oxford Dictionary (2024) uses the World Health Organisation’s definition of health, where health is “a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” While this definition provides a move from just physical aspects of health, it is still somewhat limited, and is not applicable to all communities given that ideas of health are relative. For example, qanuinngitsiarutiksait, is an Inuktitut word, roughly translating to ‘good health and wellbeing’ referring to a holistic all-encompassing idea of health, e.g. wellbeing of the household, health of the person or land; and, it can refer to tools used for maintaining health and wellness, e.g. eating traditional foods. Due to Inuit culture having a strong oral tradition, this concept was only discovered through conversation with an Inuit Elder living in Brandon, Manitoba. However, when conducting an Inuit youth health and wellness programming literature review in Canada there was no mention of this concept in identified programming, rather just emphasis on programming fostering wellbeing through focusing on both physical and mental aspects of health. While this aligns with the sentiment of qanuinngitsiarutiksait, I suggest the lack of consistent approach of terminology could actually weaken outsiders’ perspectives/perceptions of the meaning of the meaning of health and wellness for this community and the ways that it is distinct to a biomedical approach.

As such, The Arctic Institute Health and Wellbeing Series 2025 aims to document the meanings of health and wellbeing from Indigenous communities in Circumpolar countries, along with barriers to health and wellness services, with the hope of gaining further insight into what ‘health’ means for these communities and issues that exist in provision of services. To caveat, through taking this pan-Indigenous approach I am by no means attempting to homogenize these communities or contributing to ‘moves to innocence’ or allowing for ‘colonial equivocation’; rather we hope to gain a variety of perspectives on this topic. The distinct cultures, histories and contexts of Indigenous communities around the world are fully acknowledged.

This series opens with a piece from Carly Zulich, a medical student at the University of Manitoba, who explores the experiences of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun (FNNND), one of fourteen Yukon First Nations in the Yukon territory, with the health care system and health care delivery. In her article, she contextualizes the current issues in health provision for this community through exploring the colonial legacy that still impacts health related services.

Jean Balestrery, a social anthropologist then explores the issues of health and wellbeing for Circumpolar Indigenous communities through investigating the legal determinants of health, in the context of climate change impacting Arctic communities’ ability to achieve wellness. She explores the ways in which the legal determinants of health can be used to protect the health and wellbeing of Circumpolar Indigenous peoples.

Through The Arctic Institute Health and Wellbeing Series 2025, authors explore conceptualizations of health and wellness for Indigenous Circumpolar communities, along with the issues in health and wellness service provision and suggested ways in which wellness can be fostered for these communities. However, these articles have also shown that questions still remain around the meanings of health and wellness for many of these communities and ways to engage governments in paying attention to the health of all peoples, not just a select few.