The Keynote: 32nd Annual Minority Health Conference at UNC

Today, I had the distinct pleasure to attend my first Minority Health Conference sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC Minority Student Caucus. This conference is the largest and longest running student led conference in the United States. The theme for 2011 is “The Promise of Health Equity: Advancing the Discussion to Eliminate Disparities in the 21^st Century. Conference co-chair Kristin Black set the tone for the day by urging attendees and students to use “data as our fuel” to put in place effective policies and successful interventions to eliminate health disparities.

Terri Houston, the interim Chief Diversity Officer and Executive Director of the University’s Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, recognized the University’s commitment to work together to dispel myths and restore the disconnect in health disparities. Houston called for the audience to hold ourselves accountable to our commitments in addressing health disparities in minority populations. Also speaking was the UNC School of Public Health Dean, Dr. Barbara Rimer, who acknowledged the progress we have made in addressing health disparities in areas such as breast cancer screening. Still, Dean Rimer reminded us that we need to intensify our efforts especially in areas such as mortality and morbidities, diabetes, smoking and other areas that continue to persist.

The keynote speaker for the event Dr. Bonnie M. Duran, led a rich cultural presentation about the development of indigenous knowledge, modernity and socialization and the health of indigenous Indian populations. The audience was treated with a video about indigenous health disparities, indigenous wellness, delving into the “stories” of the Native American communities in the Western United States. During her speech, Dr. Duran focused on epistemenic diversity as an essential component of health equity. Her questions and objectives were thought provoking: Has Western knowledge contributed to health inequities in indigenous populations? How can we mobilize public health advocates and partnerships to foster opportunities to reduce disparities in the health of indigenous populations?

I was interested in this word “Episteme”, a term not used in my everyday public health language. What is indigenous episteme? I gather it is a socio-cultural “philosophy” of knowledge. Dr. Duran mentioned globalization, Western knowledge’s worldview of human development and other socio-cultural factors as contributors to health disparities in indigenous populations. I felt very much a participant in a history lesson as Dr. Duran walked the audience through some of the narration of socialization and health of indigenous populations. She said it is important to understand histories and the local communities in order to understand socialization and indigenous episteme today.

I was also quite interested by the “World System’s Theory” mentioned by Dr. Duran. She positioned this theory in that society is moving in the direction of the West and if you are not moving in that direction, you are not progressing. I goggled this theory and it would take quite a while to really dissect its inter-workings but can public health professionals really ignore these claims? Do we not go into communities and introduce what, we claim, is the best way implement health prevention and treatment?

Of the plethora of highlights Dr. Duran gave today, her comments on the truth and impacts of historical trauma affecting minority populations evoked nods and understanding from the crowd. This audience is well versed on the effects that weathering has on minority populations’ health. When asked what motivated her to research and focus her career in this direction, Dr. Duran said, “I work for an institution that believes in diversity but hasn’t figured out how to diversify.” These are strong words that we may all need to reflect on as we move forward in our studies and careers.