Decolonizing Diabetes

Abstract

This article presents insights into the colonial experience of Indigenous Peoples living with type 2 diabetes within seven First Nation communities in Northern Ontario. A constructivist grounded theory methodology, guided by a decolonizing and participatory action approach to conducting research with Indigenous Peoples, was utilised in this study. Twenty-two individuals with type 2 diabetes were interviewed. The main research question explored the impact of colonization on the lived experience and perceptions about developing type 2 diabetes for Indigenous Peoples.  Using semi-structured interviews, the three main categories that emerged from the analysis of the interview transcripts were changing ways of eating, developing diabetes, and choosing your medicine.  A substantive theory was developed that suggests that Indigenous Peoples, with type 2 diabetes, often live with the perception that there is ‘no going back’ to the way things once were prior to European contact. As a result, they have adapted the way they live with diabetes which can, at times, be at odds with Indigenous world views. An adaptation that considers a complementary approach to the way individuals live and manage diabetes including both Traditional and Western ways may provide a framework for a decolonized model of type 2 diabetes care for Indigenous Peoples.