Healing Histories : Stories from Canada's Indian Hospitals

Laurie Meijer Drees collected oral histories from people who experienced tuberculosis in Indigenous communities and the Indian Hospital System.

Healing Histories is the first detailed collection of Indigenous perspectives on the history of tuberculosis in Canada''s Indigenous communities and on the federal government''s Indian Health Services. Featuring oral accounts from patients, families, and workers who experienced Canada''s Indian Hospital system, it presents a fresh perspective on health care history that includes the diverse voices and insights of the many people affected by tuberculosis and its treatment in the mid-twentieth century. This intercultural history models new methodologies and ethics for researching and writing about Indigenous Canada based on Indigenous understandings of story and its critical role in Indigenous historicity, while moving beyond routine colonial interpretations of victimization, oppression, and cultural destruction. Written for both academic and popular reading audiences, Healing Histories is essential reading for those interested in Indigenous history in Canada, history of medicine and nursing, and oral histories.