On Monday, The Mailman School of Public Health held a panel discussion featuring leaders from the Lenape Center to discuss Lenape epistemologies and healthcare.

In honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health invited Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans to the Allan Rosenfield Building on October 9 to speak on behalf of the Lenape Center. The panel discussion, titled “Indigenous Peoples Day: Reimagining the Right to Health through Lenape Epistemologies,” was hosted by Professor A. Kayum Ahmed of the Department of Population and Family Health. 

In addition to serving as the executive director of the Lenape Center, Baker is an advisor for the Public Art Consortium of New York and a board member of the Endangered Language Fund at CUNY. They are a notable artist, curator, and educator, and were joined by their colleague Hadrien Coumans who runs fundraising initiatives and works on genocide prevention work at the same center.

At the beginning of the seminar, Professor Ahmed posed a question to Baker, asking, “Given the state of our world riddled with high maternal mortality rates, low educational outcomes, and general erasure of indigenous people, how do they find hope for the future?” Baker’s response was reflective of the broader theme underlying their identity: they felt a deep responsibility as a member of his “incredible history” to enliven the presence of their people.

They went on to explain that as the ancestral land of the Lenape, the area has always welcomed everyone regardless of who they are; it is a part of their tradition. That is not to say their work was ever easy in promoting hope and optimism, but this complexity only makes it all the more rewarding. Later, when prompted on the concepts of Lenape epistemology and health, Baker explained that learning about our own health and natural connection began from seeing ourselves “not different from the earth itself.” “We are the stars,” they said, referring to the interconnectivity of living beings and nature.

Coumans was then asked about the role of the University in advancing the ideas of Lenapehoking, or the homeland of the Lenape people. This land extends from part of Pennsylvania and Connecticut to the north of the Catskills, including New Jersey and Delaware as a whole. They began by explaining the history of the area: colonizers originally came to the Americas to extract resources–a clear example of both ecocide and genocide. This lack of respect for life resulted in the commodification of the Lenape homeland.

In order to start viewing the Earth as a “living being,” with each blade of grass, boulder, and tree “embodied by spirits” in their own right, Columbia University must address this history. The Lenape people built a unique culture, language, and social system based on their connection to the earth, and our modern societies still bear remnants of this culture. Towns such as Poughkeepsie and Hackensack, located in New York and New Jersey respectively, are drawn from the Lenape language systems.

The Lenape culture and cultures in general have inherent value, said Coumans. The Earth has been defined through generations of Lenape people living and engaging with it, and this history has long been “buried and hidden.” 

The second portion of the event focused on audience questions for Baker and Coumans. Baker and Hadrien began by explaining the Lenape Center’s recent seed rematriation project to bring back indigenous crops to the homeland. In partnership with a farm outside of Kingston, New York, the Center planted Indigenous blue corn, three varieties of beans, and a rare finger squash with the mission of having enough stock to return to diasporic communities. Additionally, they planned on eventually bringing blue corn chips and cornmeal to the market. In the words of Baker, the seeds are “small entities of life,” containing both the Indigenous past and future.

Another audience question was centered around the unique challenges or advantages of working in New York. As a place marked by the legacies of capitalism and colonialism but also great diversity, the location brings a certain complexity to the Lenape legacy. Coumans responded to this by asserting the power of individual change makers within complex institutions; even though New York is a place filled with large companies, there are people within them that are committed to preserving the Lenape legacy. The constantly changing landscape of New York also brought unique challenges; from a place where “you never heard the word Lenape,” the city and state have transformed into more open environments.

What does an “open environment” that prioritizes a Lenape system of epistemology look like? In our current system, Coumans explained that there exists a knowledge deficit of accurate Lenape histories written by people in the community. Remedying this involves a recentering of indigenous education from elementary school all the way up to graduate school. Partnering with institutions, such as Columbia’s own Teacher’s College, was a way in which the Lenape Center actively changed curriculum. 

The conversation ended with a final look at the healthcare system and the role of Indigenous systems of knowledge within that. Coumans expressed that the healthcare system as it exists today originated from an individualistic culture, leading to its reactionary and responsive nature. It is important to give platforms to traditional practitioners of Lenape healthcare that focus on preventative measures and maintaining a natural balance with the environment. A system that prioritizes not only all humans but all living beings is in line with Baker’s philosophy: “Kinship is key.”

In the upcoming semester, Joe Baker and Hadrien Coumans are teaching a course at the MSPH about the connection between indigenous knowledge and health. The course is set to rethink the biomedical model for human and non-human living beings alike, featuring community-based participatory research.

Image via Flickr