Module 1: Acknowledging How We’re Starting
New Relationships
Relationality and Disability
In the modules that follow, we will be thinking about the relationship between disability and healthcare. In this material, we aim to challenge the conventional
separation between patients and providers, with the latter being positioned as the sole “legitimate” experts in healthcare. Instead, we emphasize the importance of bringing together many forms of experience and expertise to promote access to healthcare and health itself.
As you will see in this module, one form of expertise that promotes wellbeing is through Indigenous ways of knowing.
One way to expand the range of experience and expertise utilized in healthcare is to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty of the land. Lovanna L. Lovern (2021) suggests that we begin to shift relationships by thinking with Indigenous ways of knowing and understanding difference. This also means that we must acknowledge and address in the systems that shape our lives and futures (Inneesh-Nash, 2021).
A belief system that promotes the superiority of white people over others, often leading to systemic inequality
