Survey Says: Disqualified

Or, How We Get in Our Own Way.

Recently, we received a Community Health and Wellness survey from a consultant at JSI Research & Training Institute’s  Community Health Institute in Bow, New Hampshire. In their website’s words, they “…carry the unique distinction as NH’s Public Health Institute by the National Network of Public Health Institutes.” It seems a reasonable place from which to start such a survey, having “…received funding to conduct exploratory research in NH to learn more about health and wellness issues affecting Indigenous residents of NH and the surrounding states.” The email promises that “Each person who completes the survey will receive a $10 Visa gift card as a thank you for their time and insight. The survey is limited to those who self-identify as Indigenous…”

It is worth noting that the very first question draws its frame of reference directly from US Census parameters, using self-identification, race, and reductive classification. Consequently, if this [completely colonized] methodology is not one’s basis for thinking about “who we are and how do we relate to one another”, then the survey detects a fatal flaw in the respondent’s answer, and kicks the participant out immediately.

So much for truly gaining insight into matters of a given community’s health and wellness; if a person and their community does not fit into these preconceived delineations, the nonconforming frames of reference cannot be recognized and acknowledged. No insight can be gained, since the blinders were on from the beginning.