Valuing Indigenous Health Promotion Knowledge and Practices: The Local Dialogue Workshop as a Method to Engage and Empower Matrons and Other Traditional Healers in Haiti

Holders of local knowledge, most of them matrons, took part in a dialogue workshop on the state of local knowledge related to health promotion held in the rural communities of Jean-Rabel in Haiti. This research was rooted in the beliefs and practices of rural actors. These health leaders among the rural dwellers were encouraged to become aware of their own knowledge and the impact that their practices have on the people in their community. Local dialogue workshops and nature walks, which are mixed methods suitable to the context, are used to keep participants empowered and comfortable in their own space. The researchers adopted the role of learners. The study yielded rich qualitative data about the practices of traditional health experts within a community, their collective conceptualization of health and its links to the environment and social determinants. By overturning hierarchies of knowledge, finding immersion in a common language and co-creating with those entrusted with traditional health promotion practices, this study confronts and challenges the factors that influence local knowledge destruction and thus contributes to the advancement of health promotion research.