Garbiñe Elizegi considered the New Zealand meeting very interesting and enriching. It was the first time I had participated in the congress. It is held every two years and the next will be in Vancouver, Canada, in 2026. The nurses organize the meeting and, above all, the nurses make the talks. They are nurses from the villages of origin who work and claim the concept of cultural security.

Maorie contributes: cultural security in the health system In this concept it is necessary to look at the historical context when talking about linguistic and cultural
oppression and to put on the table that the people of origin experience oppression. Local health systems should take this context into account when caring for indigenous patients or patients of origin. There are other concepts that work on the cultural differences between health workers and patients, but the countries of origin have not considered them useful. Thus, the teachers developed the concept of cultural security. Elizegi explained that the responsibility for managing these inequalities cannot be left to individual health professionals, in reference to structural oppression, which has historical reasons, “and we all have to understand it”. Public institutions are in charge of providing the patient with care that guarantees equity and, in particular, that of the health system: “The system obliges workers to participate in this reflection to take into account the needs of the patient and the community.” The concept developed by Maorie is mainly used to investigate the reality of the people of origin, but it is also used in those who are not native but who are ethnic minority. For example, this concept has been used to analyze the situation of Gypsy women in Andalusia.

Far behind Euskal Herria, the
New Zealand Congress has mainly presented experiences and research from New Zealand, the United States and Canada. In the opinion of Elizegi, in Euskal Herria "we are green" in terms of cultural security. He says that in the countries that we have mentioned, the issue has already been dealt with more and that they are more organised. He stressed that it is no coincidence that in some countries there are nurses who are dedicated to these tasks and in others they are not. She believes that the power or lack of power of nurses influences the health system, that is, that in Canada, the United States or New Zealand, nurses are higher on the power scale than in Euskal Herria or Catalonia (Elizegi has knowledge of the latter two). It indicates that, as a consequence, the nurse plays different roles here and there.

The effects of linguistic and cultural
oppression can appear in many ways in the health system. For example, all the knowledge that the people of origin have worked on health and care has suffered significant damage. Elizegi says that knowledge is “asleep” by historical repression and that it must be revived. The transmission of care practices and cures that have often been in the hands of women has been interrupted, as well as their knowledge about menopause and childbirth. Elizegi recalled the medicinal plants and the ways of collective and cultural healing that have been given in the Basque Country. The concept of cultural security allows the integration of all this neglected knowledge into health and nursing. Transferring this knowledge to the front line does not mean abandoning current health and medical practice, but taking into account both approaches. They call it to look by both eyes (two eyed seeing).

Elizegi stressed that many peoples of origin, other than ours, have maintained such knowledge much better, and that language is the strongest element in our own: “In our country, language is stronger, but our thinking is much more colonized with regard to other cures and practices. We have more standardized Western remedies. When we read people, we often relate them only to language, which is the main axis of our culture. For example, many of us are clear that we have to be cared for in Basque. However, in other areas we have had tremendous damage, and it is in our bodies. It has been despised and we have believed that the way of life and the link with the earth that does not correspond to the hegemonic culture”.

The need to address the issue in the not too
distant future is something that has been discussed in Congress: a solution must be sought between the communities, without waiting for the system that has been and is oppressive. Elizegi believes that the network of villages of origin is useful for this, but says that the situation in the Basque Country is difficult: “Everything is yet to be done. There are nurses who share that vision, but we should work in a network and we're not going to get institutional help. We're very green. In the field of language there is movement, work has been done; on the other hand, the concept of cultural security is known, but it is not used”. Elizegi has not lost any hope, even though he

has drawn the road in an accident. He has claimed that the way of thinking and acting proposed is being done elsewhere (examples of this kind have been heard at the congress) and has considered that his approach is valid for the Basques: “Because many times we make our approaches to health as if we were a majority and we are not in power, we are a minority. This must be emphasized, not to fall into victimization, but because otherwise nobody will, we have the responsibility, because if we are not going to disappear as a people”.

The sovereignty of the data and the colloquium of the kitchen sums up the issues that Elizegi discussed at the
three-day congress:

-Data sovereignty: Data colonization has been key to the process of colonization of the people of origin. In Health, and in our environment, there are no studies to analyze the situation of the Basques. The framework may be Spain or Navarra, but the variants of the ethnic group are not investigated as such. In the case of Ipar Euskal Herria, the challenge is even greater, as all the data are centralized in Paris.

-Research methodologies: Traditional methodologies do not serve to analyze the situations of the people of origin. The form or methodology of hegemonic research often analyzes the individual, without focusing on the community, without analyzing how language, culture, etc influences. of the community.

- Indigenous methodology: In Congress, some have explained that they have used such methods. They attach great importance to the oral report. The ways of collecting information for research are more open, adapted to the customs of member communities. For example, the contents of the conversations that have been held during cooking are used in the kitchen.

-Culture as a remedy: They have stressed the importance of maintaining and reviving language and culture for the health of a community.

-Integrated in nursing studies: In Canada, for example, in the curriculum of nursing studies, they learn the concept of cultural security. Food sovereignty and the health of the earth are subjects. In other countries, the concept of cultural safety in nursing is also learned in Lapland (local language Sápmi) and in New Zealand (local language Aotearoa).

Abstract in English of the thesis presented by Garbiñe Elizegi at the congress.