Kuwentuhan is an indigenous Filipino oral storytelling method used to preserve history and values and demonstrates how cultural values and knowledge are passed down through generations. Kuwentuhan incorporates collaborative experiences as individuals share their personal stories and perspectives. Indigenous Filipinos use the practice of kuwentuhan to build kapwa (shared identity) and spiritual connection with each other. Kuwentuhan is used by researchers in public health to examine health behaviors and health outcomes, including social determinants of health, within the social, political, and historical context of U.S. colonialism and continued imperialism in the Philippines for those living in diaspora as a minoritized group. Kuwentuhan builds connections in Filipinx/a/o American communities through shared stories of resilience and community care. This paper describes the use of kuwentuhan for public health that involves the elements of (1) embodying kapwa, (2) collective storying and memory, (3) co-producing knowledge, and (4) generational language. The following public health case studies will demonstrate the application of well-documented kuwentuhan in public health research in Filipinx/a/o American communities.
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This paper describes the health and wellbeing applications of a protocol designed from a Gumbaynggirr Australian First People’s concept, Bigaagarri. The protocol reframes threats to health and wellbeing as part of a communicative system of environmental signals, rather than an individualised, behavioural fight–flight–fear response. Developed by a Muruwari Gumbaynggirr…
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The issue of suicide has garnered considerable attention in refugee scholarship, where research examines how unique forced migration and resettlement challenges exacerbate risks and vulnerabilities to suicide. However, there are gaps in understanding the social and cultural factors shaping the lived experience of suicide in refugee communities. Using the…
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Performance methodologies take many forms—performative writing, poetic transcription, and co-performative witnessing, to name only a few—and can be both process and product, differentiating and unifying a group between and across differences. As a social work researcher committed to decolonial, liberatory methodologies that make and bring meaning to the communities…
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