Dr. Peitra Arana

Peitra Arana is a medical doctor whose areas of interest in public health include health systems and services; adolescent health; equity, culture, gender and human rights in health. In her spare time, she is dedicated to Garifuna oral history, which has been a hobby for the past 30 years. Her writing experience started at the age of 14 as an aprentice journalist with a local newspaper and further developed during a 5 year posting that included the implementation of the BTB’s annual internet marketing plans and content creation and maintenance for 11 destination websites and an online travel magazine for the Belize Tourism Board (BTB).

 

However, her dream was to study Medicine, which led to a change in career. Immediately after becoming a doctor, Peitra earned a grant through the Emerging Leaders of Americas Program (2010/2011), which gave her the opportunity to complete graduate courses in African History and Oral History at York University. Upon returning to Belize, she spent 4 years delivering healthcare and services to underserved remote Indigenous rural communities in Toledo. During that time, she developed a seven-year knowledge mobilization programme, Project Ounababa, which rescued endangered traditional Garifuna songs, developed a methodology for teaching, used technology to document and safeguard related oral history and reintroduced harvested songs into Garifuna communities.

She has used the materials collected from oral history interviews and supplemented them with archival research to publish several articles as well as two chapters in an academic publication. Peitra continues to balance a career in public health with a dedication to Garifuna culture through oral history and research.