Healing Histories: Stories from Canada's Indian Hospitals

By: Laurie Meijer Drees

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Synopsis: A social history of tubercular hospitals and Canada’s indigenous population, built around “poignant and at times heartbreaking” firsthand accounts (Choice). Featuring oral accounts from patients, families, and workers who experienced Canada’s Indian Hospital system, Healing Histories presents a fresh perspective on health care history that includes the diverse voices and insights of the many people affected by tuberculosis and its treatment in the mid-twentieth century. This intercultural history models new methodologies and ethics for researching and writing about indigenous Canada based on indigenous understandings of “story” and its critical role in Aboriginal historicity, while moving beyond routine colonial interpretations of victimization, oppression, and cultural destruction. Written for both academic and popular reading audiences, Healing Histories, the first detailed collection of Aboriginal perspectives on the history of tuberculosis in Canada’s indigenous communities and on the federal government’s Indian Health Services, is essential reading for those interested in Canadian Aboriginal history, the history of medicine and nursing, and oral history.