INSTRUCTIONS: This section is a full learning module and will take some time to complete. Ensuring a full understanding of the terms here will increase your understanding and capacity to best complete the Healing Continuum and accompanying assessment(s).
A Pathway of Decolonizing for Health Justice
The Indigenous Health Equity Institute (IHEI) Story-Based Definitions Learning Tool is an interactive, relational, and reflective digital learning resource designed for learners within the IHEI Decolonizing Academy and partner institutions. It builds understanding of how colonialism, settler colonialism, Indigenous erasure, epistemicide, and data injustice function as structural determinants of health — and how decolonizing principles, Indigenous sovereignty, and relational accountability serve as pathways toward healing, justice, and building strong Indigenous self-determination. The tool uses storytelling, Indigenous scholarship, and guided reflection to create a transformative learning experience grounded in Indigenous pedagogies of relationship, place, and resurgence.
This learning tool was developed to support public health practitioners, researchers, educators, and community partners in understanding and addressing the lasting impacts of colonialism and settler colonialism on structures/applications of public health and subsequent impacts on Indigenous health and data systems. It supports participants in exploring and defining key concepts through relational, reflective, and story-based learning. Each definition includes a narrative example, scholarly context, community perspective, and space for the learner’s own interpretation and reflection.
1. Begin each section by reading or listening to the story provided.
2. Reflect on the guided questions and write your initial responses.
3. Review the IHEI definition and supporting voices from Indigenous scholars.
4. Create your own definition that reflects your understanding.
5. Conclude with a personal commitment statement that links learning to action.
• Understand Core Concepts as Relational Systems
• Identify Colonial Structures in Public Health and Data Practices
• Articulate Indigenous Pathways to Healing and Justice
• Practice Reflective and Relational Learning
• Commit to Ethical, Accountable, and Action-Oriented Learning
This learning tool is part of the Indigenous Health Equity Institute’s Decolonizing Academy curriculum and is intended for community, institutional, and educational use with Indigenous guidance and permission.
Partner Acknowledgement
This work honors the courageous Indigenous leaders, scholars, cultural bearers, and ancestors who drew from their dreams, desires, and love for all of us — and for a beautiful existence and future — to set forth a path for this work. It is built from the teachings, vision, and resistance of those who came before us, and from whom this work recognizes and builds upon. To our friends, family, and decolonizing baddies from near and far — we thank you for reminding us that this work is fueled by the love and courage of our ancestors, the original decolonizing baddies. As Jillene Joseph (Ahini) reminds us, they are the miracle survivors of genocide, who lived through radical acts of love, pouring into the unfolding of their wildest dreams for a good life — past, present, and future.
IHEI Definition: A practice of domination by one nation over another for the benefit of resources. Colonialism in health and data systems manifests through policies, laws, and structures that continue to privilege settler knowledge and institutions.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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IHEI Definition: A structure, not an event, in which settlers occupy and replace Indigenous peoples on their lands. This ongoing process erases Indigenous governance, culture, and knowledge systems while normalizing settler ownership, systems of knowledge and power for the benefit of settlers. Maintaining this structure requires a constant cycle of violence, replacement, and control to maintain itself. This includes the physical removal, elimination, or assimilation of Indigenous peoples, the seizure and appropriation of their lands and resources, and the imposition of settler-state institutions and legal systems that erase Indigenous sovereignty and presence. Ideological frameworks that delegitimize Indigenous life and justify the theft of land are also essential for its maintenance.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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IHEI Definition: The systemic and cultural process of eliminating or rendering Indigenous peoples invisible within institutions, histories, data, and policy. It is sustained by misclassification, absence in data, and failure to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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Definition: the killing, silencing, or devaluing of a knowledge system, coined by sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos. It occurs when one knowledge system is systematically oppressed to impose another, often a dominant or Eurocentric one, which can lead to the erasure of entire cultural identities and historical narratives. Within the context of Indigenous health, it is a structured and systemic oppression of ways of knowing, not a random or isolated event, where imposition of Western knowledge systems has been used to erase or devalue existing knowledge. It relies on the devaluing, destruction or suppression of Indigenous ways of knowing, science and wisdom – along with the silencing, annihilation, or devaluation of different types of knowledge, including organic, spiritual, relational, space-time and land-based systems.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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IHEI Definition: A term introduced by the Urban Indian Health Institute to describe the exclusion or misrepresentation of Indigenous people in data systems. This includes data misclassification, non-sharing of Indigenous data, and the erasure of tribal identity within datasets.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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IHEI Definition: A framework of ethical and relational data practices rooted in Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and decolonial principles. Data justice means using, interpreting, and sharing data in ways that promote community wellness and resist colonial control and settler colonial systems.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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IHEI Definition: The collective and relational process of restoring balance to systems, lands, and bodies disrupted by settler colonialism. Health justice calls for dismantling colonial structures and advancing Indigenous resurgence as the foundation for well-being.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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Definition (expanded):
Indigenous Resurgence is the renewal and reactivation of Indigenous governance, knowledge systems, languages, and lifeways as living frameworks for health, data, and collective wellness. It centers Indigenous presence, joy, and sovereignty as acts of everyday resistance and relational self-determination.
Resurgence, as Leanne Betasamosake Simpson teaches, is not reform within colonial systems — it is the regeneration of Indigenous life “through our bodies, our practices, our relationships, and our land.” It is a radical reorientation from surviving within systems built on extraction and erasure to thriving through relationships of reciprocity and accountability.
In the context of Indigenized health and data justice, resurgence means returning authority, leadership, and decision-making power to Indigenous Peoples over their own health data, narratives, and healing systems. It reclaims data as a living expression of sovereignty — inseparable from language, ceremony, land, and kinship.
Indigenous Resurgence restores balance between human and non-human relations and transforms data and health systems from instruments of control into tools of collective care, belonging, and liberation. It insists that the measure of justice is not inclusion in colonial frameworks, but the flourishing of Indigenous futures grounded in relationship and responsibility.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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Decolonizing is the process of interrupting, dismantling, and replacing colonial structures, systems, and logics with those grounded in Indigenous worldviews and governance. It requires healing from the practices, behaviors, and systemic examples of colonialism at the individual, organizational, and institutional levels, and replacing them with actions of reciprocity, relational care, and the restoration of Indigenous authority, leadership, and ways of knowing.
In the context of public health, research, and data, decolonizing exposes how current systems perpetuate harm by centering white, settler, and extractive epistemologies that define, categorize, and manage Indigenous peoples as objects of study rather than sovereign nations and knowledge holders.
Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (2012) remind us that “decolonization is not a metaphor” — it cannot be reduced to inclusion, diversity, or reform within existing systems. It requires the material and ethical repatriation of land, power, and decision-making to Indigenous peoples. Decolonizing public health therefore demands the transformation of institutions that reproduce harm through data extraction, deficit-based research, and colonial health policies.
Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) defines decolonizing as the process of “centering Indigenous concerns and worldviews and coming to know and understand theory and research from our own perspectives and for our own purposes.” In health and data justice, this means prioritizing Indigenous methodologies, sovereignty in data governance, and community-led interpretation and use of knowledge.
Implications for Public Health and Collective Well-being:
Addressing Colonial Harm: Decolonizing requires direct confrontation with the historical and ongoing violence of settler colonialism — including erasure, exploitation, and epistemicide — and implementing reparative actions that acknowledge these harms as public health crises.
Replacing Systems: It moves beyond reform to the creation of new systems rooted in Indigenous governance, where health and data are understood through relationships — between people, land, language, and spirit — rather than through metrics of control.
Restoring Collective Health: Decolonizing reframes health as collective, ecological, and relational. It restores the understanding that community and planetary health are inseparable, and that wellness arises from balance, kinship, and shared responsibility.
Ultimately, to decolonize is to heal the systems that produce harm by transforming them into systems of care — guided by Indigenous science, accountability, and the resurgence of Indigenous governance and knowledge as the true determinants of health.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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IHEI Definition: The intentional incorporation of Indigenous perspectives, values, and knowledge systems into existing structures or practices. While decolonizing seeks to dismantle colonial systems, indigenizing re-centers Indigenous leadership, relational ethics, and land-based knowledge as guiding frameworks for transformation.
• What emotions or thoughts arise from this story?
• Who benefits and who is harmed in this example?
• What systems or assumptions uphold this pattern?
• How does this connect to health, land, or data?
Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of this concept:
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Use this space to write your own evolving understanding of where you see the manifestations of colonialism within your public health/data work:
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How will I apply this understanding to decolonize my practice, relationships, or public health/data work?
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The Constellation of Relationships
“Each concept in this tool connects to the others like stars in a constellation — forming a living story about healing, data justice, and Indigenous sovereignty.”
Learners are invited to:
Write short phrases or draw connections between terms.
Map how concepts interact.
Reflect on how decolonizing and indigenizing public health are vital for all peoples and the planet.
Statement of Commitment & Actions
“I recognize that decolonizing and indigenizing public health and data systems are necessary for the health of all peoples and the planet. I commit to ongoing reflection, accountability, and action toward this transformation.”
My Next Steps:
Sources and Relational Acknowledgements
These sources represent relationships, not mere citations — living intellectual, cultural, and community contributions to the IHEI framework.
Blue Bird Jernigan, V., & Maudrie, T.L. (2025). Why achieving health equity for Indigenous peoples requires indigenizing the social determinants of health. American Journal of Public Health, 115(5), 641–646.
Greenwood, M. (2018). Colonialism as a broader social determinant of health. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 9(1).
Jacob, M.M., & Gonzales, K.L. (2020). Indigenous cultural values counter the damages of white settler colonialism. Environmental Sociology, 6(4), 321–333.
Simpson, L.B. (2017). As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance. University of Minnesota Press.
Smith, L.T. (1999/2021). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
Tuck, E., & Yang, K.W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1–40.
Urban Indian Health Institute. (2023). Data Genocide Report Card. Seattle Indian Health Board.
To assess learners’ growth and understanding, IHEI has created a mixed-method evaluation combining pre-module (baseline) and post-module assessments.
Administer this before learners engage with any story-based module to measure prior knowledge, awareness, and positionality.
Sample questions:
• What does colonialism mean to you in the context of health or data?
• How do you understand the concept of Indigenous sovereignty?
• What do you believe are the main causes of Indigenous health inequities?
• How confident are you in identifying colonial structures in your professional field? (1–5 scale)
After completing the learning module, learners complete a reflective evaluation to assess conceptual growth, relational awareness, and action commitments.
• How has your understanding of colonialism and settler colonialism changed?
• What does decolonizing practice mean to you now?
• Describe one action you will take in your work or community to support Indigenous sovereignty.
• How did the story-based approach affect your learning and perspective?
Learners’ responses should be evaluated qualitatively using rubrics focused on depth of reflection, awareness of systemic structures, and demonstration of accountability. Quantitative metrics may include self-assessed confidence levels and commitment ratings before and after participation.
Created and written by: Kelly Gonzales, Indigenous Health Equity Institute (IHEI)
Date of Creation: October 2025
© 2025 Indigenous Health Equity Institute | www.indigenous-equity.org