Exploring Indigenous and Western Medicines from an Integrative Medical Perspective

Abstract

Indigenous medicines and healing practices have existed for countless generations of known history, yet only in the past few decades has mainstream medicine's philosophy and practice begun to even consider their validity. Throughout history, non-natives have had mixed reactions to Indigenous knowledge and cultures. The purpose of this study was to examine the historical foundation of the dissonance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous healing practices and to untangle the layered complexity of contemporary perspectives, issues and conflicts between non-Indigenous and Indigenous medicines today.