Case
Abstract
A by-product of the arrival of Westerners, cardiovascular disease is relatively new to Indigenous people in Canada. It is often referred to as “White man’s sickness,” for which, because it was unknown, there are no healing perspectives. Indigenous women have the highest rate of cardiac problems in the country. We wondered how these women would explain this strange correlation. What stories would they tell about their experience of this odd intersection of gender, culture, and health? Are there specific illness and healing narratives that emerge when Western medical stories and Indigenous life stories come together? We explored these questions in a research project conducted in Western Canada; in the present case study, we begin by going over this original project. We then discuss why we thought a narrative approach was the best fit for our research. In doing so, we provide a synopsis of some basic assumptions of narrative research. We also outline the rather complicated steps we needed to take before we could even start the “proper” part of our project, steps that involved partnering with Indigenous communities. Finally, we describe the various problems we faced when we conducted our interviews and offer some insights into what it means to do narrative health research with people from different cultural worlds.
