Protecting Indigenous Healing

As I walked through a Puerto Rican festival in Chicago, Illinois, I noticed the items that the vendors were attempting to sell to patrons. Because it was a cultural festival, I expected to see cultural items, such as traditional clothing and art, crafts, food, and all the normal things one would expect to see at a cultural festival. I saw none of these things. Traditional clothing was replaced by hats, t-shirts and other items featuring the Puerto Rican flag. Traditional arts and crafts were replaced by airbrush vendors and prints of work, all featuring the Puerto Rican flag. Traditional culture was replaced by earrings with flashing lights, plastic toy cars, sunglasses, plastic balloons of cartoon characters, and carnival rides. It seemed that the only authentic Puerto Rican items were food and music, and that the only things left of the Puerto Rican culture were the food and the flag. People of all ages carried the flag around the park, hung it from cars, and wore it on shirts, hats, and jeans. It seemed that Puerto Ricans have been forced into the institution of non-culture, grasping for their Puerto Rican identity but only able to find a shred of what their culture once was.

The modern system attempts to destroy traditional cultures very systematically and methodically. It becomes vital for the keepers of the culture to stand their ground and wage a war against the attempted assassination of their traditions, for if they are weak, the system will ambush them and destroy what is dear to their people. This happens in many ways, and often the ways are subtle. One of the more subtle ways of destroying a culture is the usurpation of its indigenous healing methods. The government and corporations infiltrate the traditional healing society, discover its methods and eventually import them into the modern world., for if they are weak, the system will ambush them and destroy what is dear to their people. This happens in many ways, and often the ways are subtle. One of the more subtle ways of destroying a culture is the usurpation of its indigenous healing methods. The government and corporations infiltrate the traditional healing society, discover its methods and eventually import them into the modern world. They gain financially, politically and humanitarianly, and they claim their "discoveries" are their own, while the indigenous people continue to suffer exploitation and racism. The commercialism of traditional knowledge is felt at the social, political and economical dimensions - not only is the culture negatively affected, but the lives and health of the people are affected as well.

Western companies have used traditional knowledge to develop drugs, procedures and methods since the conception of the modern medical system. Manuals of medicine, including brain surgery and disease prevention, had been written by the Egyptians thousands of years before the modern medical system existed. Since the birth of the medical system, medical and pharmaceutical companies have been using traditional knowledge to benefit Western consumers and businesses without providing acknowledgement or financial gain to those indigenous peoples who first developed and discovered the knowledge. Like the treasures of the pyramids that have been stolen and placed in European museums and collections, traditional healing knowledge has been stolen and placed in European hospitals, chemical companies, and clinics.

Haven't traditional healers and keepers of indigenous knowledge been exploited enough without receiving anything in return except increasing poverty, racism, and domination? Yes. Africa especially, as well as other indigenous lands and cultures, have suffered the effects of the greedy and selfish hands of the modern system's knife for much too long. Whether it is medicine, music, artifacts, or labor, we are tired of the western plunder and destruction of indigenous people and lands.

Drug companies are scrambling to find a cure for AIDS. We need only one guess to know where they are looking for their answers: Africa and other indigenous areas. They are desperately trying to "find" the answers they need - or more realistically - they are desperately trying to steal the knowledge from indigenous people, so that they can become heroes of the world. Traditional healers in Africa have cured AIDS, and the scientists and governments know this is a fact. Governments and businesses become threatened when this fact is revealed, and those traditional healers with the necessary knowledge suddenly disappear. Meanwhile, the tropics (more than ½ of the African countries are located in the tropics) are said to contain more than 75% of the ingredients used to day in pharmaceutical research, but less than 1% of money spent on global drug research goes toward treating tropical diseases!

Traditional healers seem to have very few defenses to protect their knowledge. Herb hunters and thieves arrive under the guise as tourists. They win the hearts of healers, who share their knowledge, and return to the modern world with plants and notebooks. They patent their "inventions" and make millions, while the true inventors of the knowledge continue to suffer. Traditional culture dictates hospitality and openness, even with strangers. This allows malicious outsiders to snatch traditional knowledge easily, as healers and indigenous priests have strong values that do not allow selfishness, exploitation, and theft.
Someone once asked me why an African healer who had the cure for cancer would not offer his knowledge to the drug companies. How can a healer with a good conscious allow millions of people to die when they have the remedy that is needed? I believe his question was honest, and that he did not understand the heaviness of the situation traditional healers have been locked into.

Why would a healer who knows what the modern system is doing to indigenous people and humanity as a whole offer his knowledge to a system that is exploiting virtually everyone? Why would he give the formula to a system that will use it to benefit only those who they decide should benefit - meaning the rich and privileged, while the communities that belong to the true owner die at the hands of that system? Why would a healer allow the knowledge to be usurped, only to create harmful chemical drugs and sell them to people at outrageous prices? Why would he give his knowledge, while he has to fight for his life every day? He knows he will not be credited for the knowledge, and that his people will not benefit from giving it away.

Authentic healers cannot be bought with money or fame. We must unite all indigenous healers, activists, and keepers of culture for the protection of indigenous rights, power, and values, before it is too late.