Indigenous doctors from across the globe point to the benefits of first languages in health
Exploring potential health benefits by merging western medical science with ancient Indigenous healing knowledge and languages — this was the focus of an international doctor's conference in Adelaide on Kaurna Country.
"The doctor listens to me and I listen to the doctor and we both are on the same page to help this one person," Pantjiti Lewis said in Pitjantjatjara language, translated into English.
Lewis is a highly respected Ngangkari, which in her homelands is a traditional healer for Anangu people.
She has also spent 46 years dedicated to caring for others as a health worker for Nganampa Health Council in the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (NPY) lands.
"I'll be there on the side watching and working from the Anangu perspective as well, whether or not it's a spiritual ailment they need help with.
"I've found for many years at the clinic I work in, the doctors understand and respect this."
These women all spoke their language to almost 800 people with their own traditional knowledge systems from countries like Taiwan, US, Canada and New Zealand.
Lewis, with her sister Tjulapi Alison Carroll and Rene Kulitja, left their communities in central Australia to share their ongoing holistic care practices.
Kulitja explained that when someone seeks health treatment a Ngangkari does an assessment to see if there is a cultural element that needs attention — for their physical, mental and spiritual concerns.
"Every Ngangkari has a 'mapanpa' and it is their power that they use to heal."
A healing power
Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association president Jonathan Newchurch accompanied his 14-month-old daughter Narni to the conference wearing matching possum skin cloaks — pirlta watpa (in Kaurna).
"What's my vision from the future of Kaurna? That's my vision," the Kaurna and Narungga man said, nodding to his daughter.
There's been a movement to reclaim the Kaurna language since the 1990s, using a manuscript of Kaurna language compiled by Lutheran missionaries, but still, very few people can speak it, and even less fluently.
Dr Newchurch wants Narni to learn her language because he believes this will improve her health outcomes, pointing to research analysis of 130 publications that showed cost-effective health benefits when language is revitalised and spoken.
"That showed that there was a direct correlation between the use of language and better health outcomes, where you have better physical, mental health, wellbeing and you had a lower risk of chronic disease."
The theme of this week's bi-annual Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors Congress is Ngadluku Warra, Ngadluku Tapa Purruna, Ngadluku Purruna (Our Language, Our Culture, Our Health).
"The language of a people is made up of their social practices, their cultural practices, their spirituality practices, so if you don't have that then you really have a piece missing," Dr Newchurch told ABC's Indigenous Affairs Team.
"When you have a piece of you missing, you get into a state of dis-ease.
"So you are unhealthy mentally, physically, spiritually and that is seen out in the health disparity that people see or experience."
Dr Marcus Kawika Iwane, from the Hawaiian island of Oahu, shared how the law prevented Native Hawaiians from speaking 'ōlelo Hawaii (Hawaiian language) and "how it was lost in a generation".
"My grandfather used to tell me stories about being hit by a ruler, being humiliated by his friends and being put in a corner if he would speak his native language," the president of 'Ahahui 'o nā Kauka, the Association of Native Hawaiian Physicians, told the conference.
While Dr Iwane is not fluent, his wife is, and they are making a conscious effort to ensure their children are too.
Speaking in his language, he told the conference, "if the mother tongue of a people disappear, so too will the people disappear."
"Health encompasses not just the mere absence of disease, it encompasses the balance state between the physical, the spiritual and the mental realms," Dr Iwane said.
"We know language creating this connection to culture and identity can be the strongest power in medicine and the Native Hawaiians who connect to their identity are healthier."
'It's not just a language, it's a doorway'
In Australia, of the 19 Closing the Gap targets to improve the health and social outcomes for First Nations people, only five are on track to be met.
When it comes to a sustained increase in the number and strength of languages spoken there is no further data collected since the baseline data from 2018-19.
"If we are not assessing it, it is not a priority for us, and I say 'us' as a nation," Dr Newchurch said.
"If we are not looking at language and understanding how language is intrinsic to our health and wellbeing then we are not going to be able to do anything about it from a national point of view."
Dr Newchurch has set up a not-for-profit called Warra Wangkatitya to ensure the next generation of Kaurna kids grow up learning it as this first language.
He plans to set up a "language nest" where language is taught from a young age, similar to a movement in New Zealand Aotearoa that began in the 1980s.
It was how Dr Mania Campbell-Seymour learnt to speak Te reo Māori.
It was her first language, guided by her grandmother and learnt through the Te Kōhanga Reo and kura kaupapa language revitalisation movements.
"The biggest thing I hear is that 'you're the first doctor to ever pronounce my name correctly'."
"It helps our whanau (family) feel heard and feel welcome in these clinical settings. So, our language helps to break down barriers for connection."
Dr Campbell-Seymour said it begins from the moment she welcomes all her patients.
"Greeting our patients with as simple as Kia ora. Kia ora is how we say hello, but it actually means 'be well'."
Dr Campbell-Seymour said at a time when there is a move to reinterpret their treaty, she's found that Maori are uniting and strengthening their resolve.
"Te Reo Maori, or the Maori language gives us a window into an Indigenous world view," she said.
"It's not just a language, it's a doorway, it's a window into a whole different way of thinking and being."
Dr Campbell-Seymour wants to empower Indigenous doctors to bring their "gift" of culture into the workplace.
"My one message to our Indigenous families out there is, if you study a culture, it lives on in books, but if you practice a culture, it lives on for generations to come."