The Magazine

As a psychologist and researcher working across Indian country for the past 15 years, notwithstanding significant historical trauma and ongoing systemic challenges, Indigenous people in the so-called “United States” demonstrate remarkable resilience, often drawing strength from their deep connection to land, culture, community, and spiritual practices, even while reporting high rates of psychological distress due to the impacts of colonization and dispossession.

Two years ago, when I heard that the Nigerian gospel artist Gloria Doyle had left Christianity to become an Ifá priestess, I quickly called her and requested an interview. During the interview, Doyle said, “God told me there is a better way for me to connect to him . . . You do not need to go through the pastors to see God, but if religion is warm, you feel your inner peace when practicing it. I cannot leave a place where I find peace to a place where there is war and bitterness; you stick there where you find peace.”

The deaths of 28-year-old Josseli Barnica (2021) and 18-year-old Naveah Crain (2023) made headlines as preventable fatalities that occurred as a result of delayed medical care during miscarriages.

For thousands of years, reproductive health care has been an essential part of Indigenous cultural practices, encompassing sacred rites, religious rituals, and the right to choose an abortion.

Tanzania stands at a critical juncture in its quest for reproductive justice, grappling with alarming maternal mortality rates that underscore the urgent need for comprehensive reproductive health care.