Broken Heart Stories
Many Aboriginal communities call heart problems, and in particular cardiovascular disease, “White man’s sickness.” At the same time, Aboriginal women present with some of the highest rates of this disease. Against this backdrop, we explored how women with cardiac problems understand their heart heal...
Published in: | Qualitative Health Research |
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Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
SAGE Publications
2013
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732313509407 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1049732313509407 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1049732313509407 |
Summary: | Many Aboriginal communities call heart problems, and in particular cardiovascular disease, “White man’s sickness.” At the same time, Aboriginal women present with some of the highest rates of this disease. Against this backdrop, we explored how women with cardiac problems understand their heart health and used narrative-discursive methods to analyze interviews conducted with women from two First Nations in North America. The women told stories that were riddled with contradictions, unfolding a complicated personal and cultural reality of living with cardiovascular disease. In many stories, heart disease was described as resulting from a “community imbalance” in the wake of colonialism whereby the women had to take over the traditional roles of men. Their ideas of heart disease risk and healing flowed from this understanding. They derived a sense of strength, however, from their ability to undertake both gender roles. Based on our findings, we provide some recommendations for cardiac care. |
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