Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:57:30.816Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Submit content

Help address this Question with your content Submit Content

How can Indigenous knowledge systems be respectfully shared and employed to improve the implementation of impactful One Health actions at all levels?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2024

Robyn G. Alders*
Affiliation:
Development Policy Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
Mariana M. Vale
Affiliation:
Ecology Department, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
*
Corresponding author: Robyn G. Alders; Email: Robyn.Alders@anu.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Type
Question
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

Western science introduced the term “One Health” to tackle issues associated with siloed scientific endeavours and extractive economic systems. However, Indigenous Peoples and many local communities have understood for thousands of years that human, animal and environmental health is inseparable from ecosystem health. To date, there have been few One Health initiatives that recognise, respect and work with Indigenous people to incorporate Indigenous knowledge systems (Mumford et al., Reference Mumford, Martinez, Tyance-Hassell, Cook, Hansen, Labonté, Mazet, Mumford, Rizzo, Togami, Vreedzaam and Parrish-Sprowl2023; Pollowitz et al., Reference Pollowitz, Allick, Campbell, Kamakahiolani Ellison, Perez-Aguilar, Vera, Ramirez, Nadal and Meisner2024). Additionally, operationalising One Health is proving challenging in many settings. Part of the problem is the Western approach of using English terms in non-English speaking settings and ignoring Indigenous knowledge systems. To achieve equitable and sustainable development, One Health must better understand, respect and, in collaboration with Indigenous communities, incorporate Indigenous perspectives, knowledges and practices.

How to contribute to this Question

If you believe you can contribute to answering this Question with your research outputs find out how to submit in the Instructions for authors. This journal publishes Results, Analyses, Impact papers and additional content such as preprints and “grey literature.” Questions will be closed when the editors agree that enough has been published to answer the Question so before submitting, check if this is still an active Question. If it is closed, another relevant Question may be currently open, so do review all the open Questions in your field. For any further queries check the information pages or contact this email .

Competing interests

The authors declare none.

References

Mumford, EL, Martinez, DJ, Tyance-Hassell, K, Cook, A, Hansen, GR, Labonté, R, Mazet, JAK, Mumford, EC, Rizzo, DM, Togami, E, Vreedzaam, A and Parrish-Sprowl, J (2023) Evolution and expansion of the One Health approach to promote sustainable and resilient health and well-being: a call to action. Front Public Health 10, 1056459. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1056459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollowitz, M, Allick, C, Campbell, KB, Kamakahiolani Ellison, KL, Perez-Aguilar, G, Vera, M, Ramirez, V, Nadal, D and Meisner, J (2024) One Health, many perspectives: exploring Indigenous and Western epistemologies. CABI One Health 3(1), 110. https://doi.org/10.1079/cabionehealth.2024.0015.Google Scholar