Many are aware of the seriousness of environmental health, pandemics, chronic diseases, poverty and inequality.

Yet, few know these issues disproportionately affect indigenous peoples.

The Indigenous Wellness Research Institute (IWRI), recently established at the UW in order to advance indigenous health and science research, will make these topics the focus of its studies. The institute will launch with a celebratory event in Kane Hall tonight at 6 p.m.

The IWRI will be housed in the School of Social Work and will replace the former Native Wellness Research Center. Under the leadership of Karina Walters, an associate professor of social work, faculty from such areas as sociology, medicine, urban planning and women's studies will participate in tonight's event.

The celebration will include entertainment, food and vows of service from institute leaders. The event is free and open to the public. Due to limited space, however, reservations can be made online at www.iwir.org.

The evening's performers will include Native American author Muriel Miguel and Canadian singer-songwriter Kinnie Starr, among others.

"These entertainers represent traditional music and have strong ties to social justice and community," Walters said.

"We recognize we will have a diverse audience of UW non-Native folks, Native tribal leaders and community and wanted to represent the diversity of our talents," she said.

The goal of the institute is to work in partnership with urban native peoples and other indigenous communities to go beyond classic Western approaches to teaching, said Bonnie Duran, director of the IWRI.

"Seattle's location in the Pacific Rim strengthens our existing relationships with indigenous scholars in Hawaii, New Zealand, Canada and Australia," Duran said.

Next month, the IWRI is beginning this collaboration by hosting a four-country meeting of the International Network of Indigenous Health KnowledgeandDevelopment assembly.

Over the past six years, the institute has received $1.35 million in startup funding from the University of Washington. The IWRI's leaders will also seek funding beyond traditional means to secure their place in the university, such as establishing an endowment from partners, Walters said.

"If we are permanently endowed, not only will we create better consistency and coherence for long-term research planning and institute development, but we will be positioned to create a meaningful research agenda that is not dependent on the political whims of any governmental party, be it Democratic or Republican," Walters said.

There are 11 enrolled students in the institute who are taking part in a five-year training grant funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program is designed to increase the number of American Indian students who will enter the field of Indian child welfare work.

Ramona Beltran, a second-year doctoral student and training grant member, has been working with Walters to test a culturally appropriate and generalized cardiovascular disease risk prevention program for American Indians in the Northwest.

The research focuses on the question of how space and place is embodied physically and spiritually in indigenous communities. For Beltran, the work is very personal.

"My family is from Northern Mexico and our tribal heritage is Yaqui," she said. "I know the issues that face our communities, such as health disparities and rates of chronic diseases, which are above what they should be. When you see it and it touches you in your own personal life, it fills one with a drive to make it better."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health recently funded a cardiovascular disease prevention study with the Tulalip Tribes, and the investigative team is 70 percent American Indian, Walters said. The work is both community-based and community-driven.

"To build a strong cadre of indigenous researchers, we must mentor one another and mentor allies so that everyone's science and methods improves, but more importantly, so that our indigenous communities benefit in terms of reducing health disparities," Walters said.

Researchers are currently concluding two studies funded by National Institute of Mental Health for the institute's Honor Project, which began in 2003. The first is a stress-coping model of the relationships among trauma, coping and health in urban gay, lesbian and two-spirit Native Americans and Alaskan Natives. The second project focuses on mental health and HIV risk behaviors of two-spirits from over 400 compiled interviews.

In the future, research targets include methamphetamine prevention in urban Native communities, environmental health, chronic disease, infectious diseases and structural inequality, Walters said.

Reach contributing writer Liz Burlingame at news@thedaily.washington.edu.