Purpose and Audience

The purpose of this project was to build a community of practice of disaster researchers and public health practitioners who are currently involved in or have previous experience working on public health disaster issues in tribal areas or in partnership in Indigenous-led efforts. We aimed to learn from existing networks and develop a coalition of Indigenous-identified researchers and practitioners, as well as non-Indigenous partners who are committed to understanding and ameliorating the effects of disasters.

The goals of this project were three-fold:

• First, we hoped to develop a better understanding of the current status of Indigenous-led public health disaster research while learning more about effective strategies for tribal engagement and intercultural collaboration.
• Second, we worked together to identify future directions for public health disaster research with Indigenous populations and in tribal regions.
• Third, our hope is to support and maintain the community of practice for years to come by cultivating this network of public health researchers, disaster researchers, and those working at the interface of the two fields.

We aimed to bring together disaster researchers of Indigenous descent as well as those who engage in public health research or outreach in collaboration with Indigenous populations or in tribal regions.