The Two-Spirit Dry Lab (the “Lab”) proudly shares the exciting news of the newly published article from Chase Bryer, citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Two-Spirit Dry Lab member, and a current doctoral student in Behavioral and Social Health Sciences at Brown University School of Public Health.
Chase, the lead author, working alongside Autumn Asher Black Deer of the University of Denver, Braveheart Gillani of Case Western Reserve University, and Jordan P Lewis of University of Minnesota Medical School published “Theoretical Approaches to Disrupting Historical Trauma Among Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQ+ Elders,” in the latest edition (Vol. 3 No. 4 (2023): Fall 2023) of the Healthy Populations Journal, a multi-faculty, student-led, open-access, peer-reviewed journal housed at the Healthy Populations Institute (HPI) at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
“It was an honor to co-write this piece alongside amazing friends and colleagues where our common connection was attending the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis,” Chase expressed. “I think social work has such a valuable role in advancing and shaping the field of public health especially in areas of cultural gerontology and Two-Spirit Elder health.”
This article explores the role of historical trauma and health-related behaviours among Two-Spirit and Indigenous lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (2S/LGBTQ+) Elders and how the emergence of Indigenous holistic theory (IHT) and its guiding constructs could work to inform culturally responsive interventions for this population. By applying the IHT framework to Indigenous 2S/LGBTQ+ Elder interventions could be an effective pathway for understanding the population while helping to inform more culturally responsive health promotion efforts that will lead to wellness in later life. The paper concludes with a discussion of how IHT helps to advance our knowledge about addressing historical trauma most responsively, along with future research recommendations.
“Chase’s work that centers and is honoring of Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ peoples/elders in this article is exactly what we had hoped when we formed the Lab in 2018,” said Harlan Pruden and Travis Salway, the Co-Principle Investigators of the Lab. “Work such as this promotes wise and best practices in sex and gender research and to grow new knowledge(s) that can be applied to improve the lives, health and/or wellbeing of Two-Spirit and other Indigenous people.”
“Integrating ‘Two-Spirit Affirming Activities’ into Indigenous Elder care are life-affirming interventions,” said Ryan Stillwagon, Two-Spirit Dry Lab Research Specialist. “Chase and colleagues are breathing life into the Lab’s vision of robust, gender-inclusive, active, and thriving network of Two-Spirit health researchers, leaders, and knowledge users, supported by an integrated network of settler-allies. He is advancing the Lab’s research goal how Two-Spirit facilitates access to health information and wellbeing for Indigenous sexual and gender minority people.”
“The Lab continues to be a source of inspiration and affirmation for me,” Chase added, “I am incredibly grateful for all of their love and support that is provided to me as a Chickasaw, Two-Spirit person and scholar!”
