UB Libraries among handful of locations premiering ‘Native Voices’

The culture and healing traditions of Native Americans are on display at UB in “Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness,” a traveling national exhibition that includes UB as one of its first stops.

The Native Voices exhibition, co-sponsored by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the American Library Association, is a collection of images and video interviews in which people of American Indian, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian descent share, in their own words, their views on health, medicine and illness.

The UB Libraries is among four locations chosen to premier the materials. The exhibition will travel to more than 100 libraries across the nation from 2016-20.

The exhibition, now on display through March 16, is located in the Health Sciences Library in the lobby of Abbott Hall, South Campus.

The UB Libraries will hold an opening ceremony at 4 p.m. Feb. 11 in Abbott Hall. The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will include remarks from Margaret Moss, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion in the School of Nursing, as well as a traditional ceremony led by Tyendinaga Mohawk scholar Jodi Maracle, a doctoral student in the Department of Transnational Studies, College of Arts and Sciences.

The interactive exhibition features six viewing stations — Apple iPads loaded with nearly 100 interviews and videos related to Native medicine and health. Along with the stations are display banners that share information surrounding five themes: individual, community, tradition, nature and healing.

 “I am pleased that our Health Sciences Library is serving as a host site for this important exhibition,” says H. Austin Booth, vice provost for the UB Libraries. “The exhibition raises awareness of important issues related to the health needs of contemporary Native peoples and offers an excellent opportunity to learn more about the ways in which traditional healing methods can enhance wellness.”

The UB Libraries also will host a panel discussion on practices and issues related to Native American health from 6-9 p.m. March 3 in B15 Abbott.

Moss will moderate the free event — a Friends of the Health Sciences Library program held in collaboration with the Program in American Studies and the School of Nursing. Guests will be able to sample a selection of traditional Native dishes. Panelists will be announced soon.

“The Native Voices exhibit has, at its core, Native views and definitions of health and illness,” says Moss, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and author of “American Indian Health and Nursing.”

“This is key in understanding the health of the Native population instead of using the dominant culture as the ‘gold standard’ and trying to fit in the apparent outliers. The inclusion of storytelling, intergenerationality, and Native traditions and activities that promote healing are obligatory to the narrative but often overlooked.”

The exhibition aims to help Native Americans preserve their concepts of health and medicine within their communities, particularly among Native youth, and to assist non-Natives in understanding Native ideas and experiences.

More information and videos from the exhibition can be found on the National Library of Medicine’s website.