Brooke Olson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Phone: 607-274-1735. E-mail: bolson@ithaca.edu I am a cultural and medical anthropologist with specialties in Native American issues and cultures, integrative medicine, gender, and applied anthropology. One of my main interests is medical pluralism and how cultures such as our own have incorporated healing traditions from all over the world. In the past decade, there has been an enormous increase in the interest in and utilization of non-biomedical health care techniques. I examined this subject in my dissertation, The Politics and Possibilities of Integrative Medicine: An Anthropological Analysis of Pluralistic Health Care Movements in America (2001; University of Arizona).

Locally in Ithaca, I am involved in two organizations, the Ithaca Health Fund and Ithaca’s Integrative Community Wellness Center (www.communitywellness.clarityconnect.com), where I work with many other dedicated Ithacans in creating innovative -- and not-for-profit -- models for individual, community, and cultural wellness. I encourage students to get involved with these local groups to gain practical experience in health research and community based organizational skills. Students also learn about diversity in Ithaca and how the local context articulates with national and global trends in health and wellness care.

Medical pluralism and indigenous cultures are the major themes that cross-cut my work, and more recently I have expanded my research interests to traditional Hawaiian healing. In January of 2002, I was the co-organizer for the Ithaca College-Wells College anthropology program on the big island of Hawaii. Two Ithaca College students and I explored traditional Hawaiian herbs, such as awa and ginger, and practices such as lomilomi massage. I will be returning with the January 2003 intersession course, The Anthropological Experience in Hawaii, to further explore healing and other anthropological issues with Ithaca ollege and Wells College students.

For Native Americans, there are many issues related to maintaining their healing traditions in the face of a long history of cultural domination and assimilation. I have worked in both Arizona and New York on Native American diabetes and have noticed in my evaluations that cultural sensitivity and cultural revitalization are the keys to effective education and treatment programs in all areas of Native health care. Locally, I am involved in an initiative called SHARE that aims to promote cultural wellness through education and the reconnection of Cayuga people to their homeland (www.share.clarityconnect.com). SHARE, which stands for Strengthening Haudenosaunee American Relations through Education, is a not-for-profit ollaborative organization where many Native and non-Native people come together to work on mutual issues, such as the environment, and to facilitate Cayuga people returning to their homeland in the Finger Lakes region. Towards this end, SHARE is operating a 70 acre organic farm, which we now lease, in the Cayuga homeland for such a return. SHARE runs the property as an organic farm and hosts a number of Native events where clan mothers, chiefs, faithkeepers, and community members, can meet and support the cultural revitalization of the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) people. Many students intern and volunteer at the SHARE Farm, doing everything from planting and harvesting, to working with the horses and fundraising. Please contact me if you are interested in being part of this unique initiative.

Courses:

• Cultural Anthropology
• Integrative Health Studies
• Medical Anthropology
• Native American Women and Culture
• Native Americans and the Environment
• Native North Americans
• Women and Culture
• The Anthropological Experience in Hawaii (January 2003 intersession course in Hawaii)
• Native Americans and the Environment

Campus Committees & Organizations:

• Co-Coordinator, Native American Studies Program
• Diversity Awareness Committee
• Steering Committee, Integrative Health Studies Program
• Faculty Advisor, Native American Cultural Club

Community Organizations:

• Board of Directors & Chair of the Community Needs/Community Outreach Committee, Ithaca’s Integrative Community Wellness Center
• Board of Directors & Secretary, SHARE (Strengthening Haudenosaunee American Relations through Education)
• Payment Review Committee, Ithaca Health Fund
• Planning Committee, Peachtown Native American Festival and Education Day

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