World Organization of Family Doctors — WONCA

International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

Duration: 11:09 1385 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

The video highlights the critical importance of listening to Indigenous voices and advocating for justice within every community forum. It emphasizes that while every group has a voice, the real challenge lies in who is willing to listen and how society engages with these perspectives. The narrative suggests that through interaction and shared experiences, individual efforts can grow into something larger, like a fire becoming a great flame. This collective energy is meant to inspire others for days ahead, carrying forward a light of understanding and solidarity among diverse groups of people gathered together. A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the harsh realities faced by Indigenous communities in rural areas, where accessing basic healthcare is extremely difficult due to distance, poor infrastructure, and financial constraints. Many residents live far from doctors, traveling long distances over gravel roads with unreliable vehicles that often lead to fines if stopped for lack of registration or insurance. Additionally, there are deep cultural misunderstandings between medical staff and Indigenous patients; some elders feel disrespected by young doctors who do not understand traditional healing practices or the spiritual significance of their medicine. These barriers prevent many from seeking necessary care, leading to a cycle where they avoid hospitals altogether rather than face potential judgment or dismissal of their beliefs. The speaker shares personal stories about growing up in a culture that values elders and tradition, noting how children were taken by older generations for education before modern family structures existed today. There is also mention of rituals involving nature, such as returning shavings from carved canoes to the earth and using water ceremonies to connect with ancestors across borders like Argentina. The speaker expresses concern about losing cultural identity due to historical bans on speaking native languages in schools but remains hopeful that sharing their traditions openly will help rebuild community confidence. By offering traditional medicines and stories at a conference table, they invite others to learn rather than judge, fostering mutual respect between different worlds. Ultimately, the message is one of unity grounded in shared responsibility toward Mother Earth and each other's well-being. The speaker thanks everyone for allowing them to share their culture without fear or shame, acknowledging that this exchange brings teachings into the very essence of international gatherings. They urge listeners to lift sadness, clear obstacles, and guide future actions with humility and openness. Whether through spiritual rituals involving rivers and oceans or simple acts of kindness toward neighbors, the goal is to ensure no community feels left behind while working together to heal both land and people across generations.

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Every community has a voice. The problem is who is listening and how are we listening to the voices of the [music] community. We have to listen to those voices and advocate for justice [music] in every forum. >> Over the next day through interacting with [music] and each other a firewalk bigger and bigger. We talk about a a car something that started. We can say it's a fire. So you will be part of the big flame that's here. So I'm going to go back to England in 5 [music] days, but I will take a light that's been glowing that will glow amongst each and every one of you [music] for the next 5 days. [music] [clears throat] >> [singing] [singing and music] [singing] >> There are places like here everybody knows I can go to to the malai and I fit >> [music and singing] >> This is rural where where we are and it's very hard to get to our nearest doctor. I think it's about an hour away from here. Then you got gravel roads and the majority of us are either unemployed or or on a pension. So just to get there the cost of a GP is I think about $30 to $50. Then there's petrol on top of that. And because we we struggle to maintain some of our vehicles, you know, if you get pulled up by a police officer, there's a fine for no registration, no warrant. So they'd rather not go to the doctors. [chanting and singing] My name is Russell Ricky. And when I was born, because I was the firstborn son, I was what we called a a moai. It was known in our culture that the old people take the firstborn and and educate them in in the ways of Mai. >> The elders came and took me away from my mother when I was barely a couple of hours old. It was the normal thing for for us to grow up without our our parents. I was a a person that did things for the old people. Uh just doing things, getting their pills, making sure they were warm and and all all the time the the culture was mai. Al Mai Queen Tata and a lot of elders came to my grandfather's funeral and I thanked them and in Mai the Mai queen saw that I thought oh he's a young man to be getting up and talking and thanking us. So that was when she said he will be the next one [music] that will take this old man's place. There were elders dying in our region and those that were left behind were very concerned about who's going to fill our places when we die. We look at the the whole world as a meaningful thing. Everything has a has a course in in life. If we take anything from out of the bush, we would always go in there and sit and sit with the elements. We want to chop this tree down and we want to end its life and we want to take it and carve a canoe for it. But all of the shavings inside is kept and put back into mother earth. I'm I'm the coach cultural advisor to the regular medical center. I was going in to see the Fiona and there was an elderly woman there and she was really saying some nasty things about uh the doctors and Fiona said what did we do? I said that's what you didn't do. I said she was saying how dare you. [music] your doctors are all kids compared to her and they treat her like a child. That old lady will probably go and tell all her family how rude your doctors are. So she asked me would I help her as well you really need to educate the regular medical your whole staff on how to be sensitive to Mai. You have to approach Maldi with a different attitude to actually sit and listen to an indigenous person talk about their medicine before modern medicine came and at least think about it instead of before you get to the conversation table. It it hasn't been proven. I've Googled it. It's never been tested. It's a whole lot of witchcraft sort of sort of >> [singing] >> Ta and I spoke before the conference and she says there are a lot of in international guests coming in of all professions all to to do with rural health. And she says, "I would like you to focus on the indigenous people that have come to New Zealand. >> A warrior would come out in front of the the the people and they would place something on on the ground for the visitor to to pick up. It's the challenge that the warrior goes out there and when he puts it down he says this is us. I'm bringing yourself Vivama and you back to my region and I would like some of that [music] lodo to be part of our our ritual and putting [music] it back into mother earth. A couple of the indigenous speakers I spoke to were having problems in their [music] own country. So I says, "Here, yeah, you hold this and you put all your [music] your feelings, your spiritual feelings, your hurts, your happiness and maybe we can hear." I says, "When this thing [music] touches the water with your breath of life on it, this land and this water will know ah here is the descendant [music] of my sister with the Argentina, all those places that you represent. I I feel a important responsibility to continue to descend and connect and tremendous thanks for the opportunity to do this. >> I says we believe that your mother earth is a sister to our mother earth. There are things when we put it into the ocean, when we put it into the to the rivers, we put it into the land. And the spirit of it of everyone that has been involved with the conference spiritually. It moves in all directions across both sides of a river, upstream, downstream. It runs to the sea and the sea goes stretches to the whole world. We put the last bit of the lodo on on the land here, which means this is where we we grounded everything and we left the spirit world with the spirit world and we came back to us as people. We ask that you lift the sadness [music] and that you clear the pathway and any obstacles in front of us. We ask that you guide us on this day. But I was very touched by meeting your kids. I I had tears in my eyes. Um and to meet to see your land and and your granddaughter, beautiful as a mother who has a son um close to the edge of your own son. >> Yes. >> Um and to see to know how they navigate a world that's different from the one I navigated or you navigated. Um it was very special for me to meet them and also to tell them how important you have been to all of us that there was something very special and very grounded and there was a grounding force to everything that was happening and it brought the teaching of no communities into the very essence of the conference. I I don't think that this would have happened if [music] it wasn't for the presence of Russell Ricky here. >> Yeah, I am very very concerned about the way of [music] the Mari. I think so much has been taken from the community. We we're actually playing catchup. In my father's era, uh they were not allowed to speak Mai at at school. We need to get our confidence back on who we are and we are someone and where we we come from. We come from here. All I I can do is take to the table the moldy that I've got and put it out on the table like a feast. Those that want it, it's there. If not, I'll take it with me when I die. You and I.