Practicing Self-Determination to Protect Indigenous Health in COVID-19: Lessons for This Pandemic and Similar Futures

Our contribution to this edited collection on geographical perspectives of COVID-19 is threefold. First, we frame Indigenous Knowledge Systems and their fundamental connection to the health of the land and the interconnectivity between the land and human health, broadly defined. Then, we discuss how Indigenous peoples are responding to COVID-19 to protect the health and wellbeing of their communities by enacting self-determining policies and practices. These communities are taking control; they are not waiting for state-driven direction. We provide concrete examples of such action across varying geographies. For example, in Indigenous contexts where ‘the social’ is so critical, how are communities overcoming the ‘social distancing’ requirements? One response: writing their own bylaws. Indigenous communities are receiving emergency relief funds but with the autonomy to use those funds in differing ways. We end with a discussion about how the responses of Indigenous communities to COVID-19 may provide learning lessons and policy direction for other health emergencies, like climate change.