“Our health comes from our culture and our culture comes from our lands, our waters. To make good decisions, these connections must be respected.” –Larry Campbell, wanaseah
The Swinomish Community Environmental Health Program supports and enhances health and wellbeing in the Swinomish way. A healthy community encompasses all aspects of Swinomish relationships, values, and priorities. Health is the physical, social, mental and cultural realms on individual, familial and community scales, including reciprocal relations between people, the environment, and all other beings. Our work is guided this view health, of which we developed indicators of non-physiological aspects of health that are important to the community.
The Indigenous Health Indicators (IHI) are a set of community-scale, non-physical aspects of health that are integral to Coast Salish health and wellbeing. The IHI reflect deep connections between humans, the local environment, and spirituality. The IHI provide a template for resource-based communities to tailor to suit their own unique connections and health priorities.
The six indicators: self-determination; education; resilience; cultural use; resource security; community connection
We evaluated the impacts of climate change using the IHIs and found that Swinomish members prioritized Indigenous education (we wrote a paper about it here). Based on community priorities, we developed the 13 Moons curriculum, which we teach weekly in the preschool and the Boys & Girls Club (13 Moons seasonal videos can be found here).
We collaborated with other Indigenous teachers to put together the Cedar Box Experience – providing online access to the 13 Moons curriculum and the cultural ecosystems curriculum, as well as the virtual cedar box toolkit. We also have seasonal community workshops, such as Medicine of the Trees.
We manage the 13 Moons community garden. Fruits and vegetables from the garden are freely shared in the community via multiple produce carts in the Village, at Elders lunches, and in the main kitchen. We stock the produce carts year-round to ensure access to fresh, healthy foods.
We prioritize working with Swinomish youth, both in the classroom and via internships. We also collaborate closely with several Swinomish departments and programs, including Fisheries, Hunting and Gathering, and Education.