Page 5 - An Intersectional Exploration of Disabled and Native Identities

American Indian Studies

& Disability Studies:

Parallels & Connections

Parallels with Disabled
From “A Guide to Some
Native American Beliefs and Ways of Knowing:

Cultural Characteristics • Disability culture and self-care

(Lovern & Locust): often centers on the holistic
experience that is a combination

5. Illnesses affect the mind and spirit of all aspects of health and well-
as well as the body, each in relation to being.
the other two. • The disability experience

6. Wellness is harmony in spirit, mind teaches unique perspectives that
and body. echo traditional AI/AN

7. Unwellness is disharmony in spirit, worldviews: personal
mind or body. accountability, interdependence,
the body as a site of innate
10. Each of us is responsible for our knowing, and seeing time in an
own wellness.
alternate way due to making
12. Unity of the group is binding. accommodations and respecting

14. Avoiding disharmony is desirable. the needs of the body.
• Disabled bodies are antithetical
15. The body is sacred to its owner.
to the goals of capitalist
18. The concept of time is culturally production and neoliberal
determined individualism. Rather, disability

27. Conceptualization is from the theory and lived knowledge
whole to the part. attest to the necessity of thinking

30. Competition that calls attention to in terms of collective
an individual is not desirable. experience.