Albuquerque, NM – When students and professionals in the health fields come to an institute, usually powerpoint presentations by distinguished professors in a conference center are expected. The Native Health Initiative, a local health partnership, sees their upcoming Indigenous Health Leadership Institute (IHLI) May 21-23rd in a completely different light.

“We want our attendees to see the knowledge and wisdom that our Indigenous communities have, and our ‘professors’ for IHLI are elders, youth, and community activists,” says NHI Coordinator Shannon Fleg (Dine). In fact, IHLI’s organizers have promised a powerpoint-free institute, and will spend much of the three days with community leaders in the Kewa Pueblo and Tohajiilee community on the Navajo Nation.

“I am excited to show these future healers how important our culture, our language, and our community is to health, since I do not think they get this message in their formal training,” says Jan Atencio (Kewa) who is organizing presentations on community health in her community for IHLI.

Included in the teaching during the April institute is a visit to an art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts and a night of film, “Indigenous Film: A Lens for Health, Healing and Social Justice” that is open to the public. The event takes place at the Trillion Space (510 2nd St NW, Albuquerque) Friday night, May 21st at 8pm. (Flyer is attached below.)

And it is clear that those attending have a diverse spectrum of interests and reasons for attending, with professional interests that range from medicine to public health, and coming from Baltimore, California and all parts in between the two. One local IHLI participant, Francisco Romero, a traditional healer in the Nahuatl (Aztec) tradition sees his attendance as a “way to improve relations with our brothers and sisters from American Indian Nations.”

The Native Health Initiative purposely used the word “indigenous” for the institute, hoping to deconstruct and decolonize the notion that Indigenous communities and traditions from north of the border are distinct from those south of the border. “In some small way, we see IHLI as a beginning to the healing and unification that is needed between Indigenous peoples on both sides of sociopolitical dividing line we call the Mexican-American border”, says NHI Coordinator Raphael Lope (Navajo). “New Mexico is the perfect place for this healing to begin.”

Also making IHLI unique is that it is largely funded by what NHI calls “loving service” and not monetary funds. This institute, which has no grant funding, no educational or health institutions as sponsors, is happening because of a committed group of students and community leaders who are giving their time and talents to make it happen. “From the housing to the learning sessions in our local communities, IHLI is funded on people power, replacing money with our traditional Indigenous value system,” says Clemmons.

Local co-sponsors for IHLI include the Kewa Pueblo, Tohajiilee Chapter of the Navajo Nation, Tohajiilee Behavioral Health System, S.E.E.D. Graduate Institute, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at IAIA, Tohajiilee’s Chief Cornerstone Church, Sabawear, The Trillion Space, First Nations Healthsource, La Plazita, and Kapulli Teocalli Ollin. National co-sponsors for IHLI include the American Public Health Association (APHA), Association of Native American Medical Students (ANAMS), and the American Medical Student Association (AMSA).