“sometimes clinicians’ words are not sufficient and not the words used by an indigenous person experiencing symptoms related to cardiac pain,” o’keefe-mccarthy said. “it’s important for people to help us understand what their experiences are like and help us ask questions that we don’t know that we need to ask because it’s not our information, it’s theirs to share.”
the educational materials created by the project will be arts-based and incorporate a wide range of mediums, including painting, poetry, sculpting, drumming and dance, as well as the more standard written word. these materials will help convey, among other things, the symptoms that can accompany a heart attack, including pain or discomfort in the chest, arm, jaw back or shoulder, in addition to fatigue, shortness of breath and a tingling in the arms or hands.
it was important to researchers to build a knowledge base that combined western science with indigenous ways of knowing. “our research project is going to be an example of how the community is working with the university to hear the truths of indigenous peoples and have community develop the promotional and educational ways to communicate this indigenous heart-health knowledge,” bomberry said.
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