Water is K’e
Present Project
Water is K’é: Promoting healthy beverage choices among Navajo families
About Water is K’e
Water is K’é: Central to Diné (Navajo) culture is the concept of K’é. The Diné Food Sovereignty Report describes K’é as “the ancient system of kinship observed between Diné people and all living things in existence.” Family is at the core of kinship ties, allowing people to identify their relation to others through their clans. K’é establishes a strong family structure, embracing the collective role of parents, grandparents, and extended relations in the raising of a child. K’é extends beyond relationships among people to include our interconnectedness with the natural and spiritual world of living beings, water, and earth. The name of our intervention reflects the importance of family ties, while inviting participants to deepen their connection with water as a source of physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment and as part of their cultural identity.
Our projects focus on community-led interventions to promote healthy beverage habits and strengthen ties to Navajo culture to promote health and wellness in Navajo families. Our work is carried out in close partnership with a Community Advisory Group (CAG), which provides input on all our projects. Members include early education teachers, community activists, cultural experts, health promotion experts, parents, and elders. Current projects include:
Water is K’é for early child education (ECE) settings. Water is K’é for ECEs promotes multilevel change through strengthened cultural connections, enhanced health literacy, and increased access to drinking water, with the goal of promoting family cohesion and improving health outcomes among family members. We have developed an intervention that can be delivered to families enrolled in early child education sites that includes lesson plans, individual water access plans, and social media outreach.
Funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R01MD018997), we will work with Navajo Nation Early Child Education sites to carry out a prospective randomized study, enrolling about 400 Navajo families with a child attending a participating ECE. The aims of this study are:
- Evaluate the impact of Water is K’é on children aged 2 to 5. We hypothesize that participating children will have healthier beverage habits and body mass indices compared with children in the control group.
- Evaluate intervention impact on the health of other family members. We hypothesize that participating individuals will have healthier beverage habits and body mass indices compared with the control group.
- Evaluate the intervention’s impact on family well-being. We hypothesize that participating families will have stronger family cohesion through strengthening of intergenerational cultural continuity compared with families in the control group.
Climate change in Navajo Nation: Raising awareness and understanding community perspectives. We will engage with Navajo community members in a bidirectional exchange of thoughts and ideas to identify community-driven solutions and catalyze momentum to action. Knowing that youth are the upcoming generation of problem-solvers and community leaders, this project will pilot 2 new internship roles to collaborate in the community outreach process as conveners, organizers and change agents. The goals of this project are:
- To raise awareness about the intersection of climate and health among Navajo community members
- To gather inter-generational community perspectives about priorities, needs, and culture-based solutions to increase climate readiness related to water security and health on Navajo Nation
- To stimulate interest and engagement in this topic among Diné youth
- To foster new partnerships across disciplines of public health, ecology, activism, and traditional knowledge
Global learning to advance health equity. Engaging with global partners to exchange community-generated wisdom and ideas is critical to advancing health equity. Since 2015, we have taken part in MEDICC’s Community Partnerships in Health Equity (CPHE) program which involves group visits to Cuba and to other communities of color throughout the U.S. to promote transformative learning led by local community members. Our team provides core support for the Navajo-CPHE coalition which includes teachers, youth, public health specialists, healthcare providers, elected leaders, community health representatives, traditional knowledge holders and community activists. Current CPHE projects focus on cross-site youth exchanges to share cultural perspectives related to climate justice and health. We are also one of the five core sites in the Global Learning for Health Equity Network to promote the adaptation of health equity interventions to U.S. settings with a strong focus on community engagement and bidirectional learning. We are also building partnerships between Navajo Nation and Indigenous Peruvian communities with the goal of collaborating on community-led strategies to address water insecurity and climate change.