First Nations, Inuit and Aboriginal Health

eHealth is a government-managed system utilizing ICTs (information and communication technologies) to support and connect health care professionals and the people. Its main aim is to provide indigenous population with health-related information and telephone consultation.

It seems that Canadian government’s eHealth system implies the two possible types of appropriation of ICTs in and for indigenous communities (Gideon, 2006). The first is to disseminate Western medical knowledge into indigenous communities via ICTs; in this case, ICTs is adopted as a conduit of dominant scientific knowledge. The second is to build “partnership” between the dominant medical knowledge and indigenous care systems; this type of apporpriation would be more helpful for indigenous communities’ self-determination and well-being.

Reference: Gideon, V. (2006). Canadian aboriginal peoples tackle e-health, In K. Landzelius (ed.). Native on the Net: Indigenous and Diasporic Peoples in the Virtual Age (pp.61-79). London: Routledge.

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