Events

Too often in Western-oriented health care, the valuable resource of healing is in scarce supply, with access favoring those with prestige and power. The hunting-gathering Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari Desert provide a perspective of special evolutionary significance, as they offer an alternative healing model based on synergy. 

With their spiritually infused healing dance occupying the central ritual of community life, the Ju/’hoansi demonstrate how synergy can be released to make healing resources expanding, renewable and increasingly available. When synergy prevails in a community, the whole available healing network is greater than the sum of the parts, as what is good for one is good for all. With the release of synergy, those previously denied access to healing are empowered, and they become active participants in the generation and utilization of valuable healing resources.

After telling the story of this Ju/’hoan healing dance and delineating the model of synergy it expresses, we will ask how we can apply Ju/’hoan teachings about synergy and healing to our contemporary Western-oriented approach to health so that we can create a more effective and socially just way of caring and healing.

Dick Katz, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus, First Nations University of Canada, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan. He has dedicated over 40 years to the respectful exchange of knowledge between Indigenous and Western approaches to healing and spiritual growth. After receiving his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard he worked with Indigenous healers and elders around the world, including the hunting-gathering Ju/’hoansi of the Kalahari Desert, the Fijians of the South Pacific, and the Cree and Saulteaux First Nations of Saskatchewan. His efforts to develop therapeutic services sensitive to the needs of Aboriginal people has helped generate models of best practice for Western clinicians. He is the author of six books on culture and healing, including the classic Boiling Energy: Community Healing Among the Kalahari Kung; Nobody’s Child; and most recently, Synergy, Healing and Empowerment: Insights from Cultural Diversity.