By Melanie Ferris, Aboriginal Health Promotion Consultant
*Part 1 of 2
Two weeks ago I spent some time with about 300+ women and a couple of men. I was presenting two workshops at the annual Best Start conference in Markham, Ontario.
Working with women is an amazing reminder about how strong we truly are. We are the givers of life and the protectors of the water. I know that I do not yet fully grasp the power that women have, so attending a Best Start conference is a great way to spend time with, and soak of some of the wisdom, from the other women.
My own power became apparent when I became a mother. I’ve tried to embrace my cultural teachings to help me in raising a strong, respectful boy.
One of the teachings we receive as First Nations people is that our voices are tools for prayer. We sing to celebrate and pray. I sang to and with my son since he began growing inside me. I had never really sang before, and if you had told me I would ever sing for hundreds of people, I would not have believed you. Singing helps me understand and appreciate my own strength as a woman.
Thelan and Tarig sang an opening song for the Best Start conference
Now 4 years old, my son joined me in Markham to open the conference in a good way by singing an opening song along for participants. Six-year-old Thelan and his mom Elaine Kicknosway came from Ottawa to join us in singing “Wildflower.” Thelan then honoured all of us by performing a hoop dance!
It felt great to be a part of opening this conference. Some people told me that they found it empowering and healing, and I saw a friend with tears in her eyes!
Empowerment is something that I think of whenever I’m working with my friend Kelly Gordon. Kelly is a registered dietitian who is a part of our Aboriginal advisory council here at Health Nexus.
Kelly works to address the barriers that Aboriginal people face in trying to have good health. She educates people around nutrition and physical activity issues that are related to pre/postnatal health, preparing healthy and locally based meals on a budget, planning nutritious meals when you have a busy schedule, etc.
Kelly and I worked together to prepare a workshop we called Using Cultural Knowledge to Help Empower Aboriginal Parents in Raising Healthy Children. Specifically, we wanted to share ideas about what we’ve been learning through our Let’s Be Healthy Together project. This is a toolkit and training project, funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, that aims to prevent obesity in Ontario’s Aboriginal children.
About 50 women from across Ontario came to our workshop. The women were from a mix of backgrounds, so we wanted to share some cultural knowledge to help everyone feel more comfortable with the world views of Aboriginal people in Ontario. I want everyone who runs or funds a program to know and appreciate why we are more responsive to those services that respect our cultures and are uplifting for us.
I opened the session with a smudge and some teachings about this ceremony, using the circle, and how including children in everything is our cultural way of being. Kelly brought in her new baby to help me emphasize my point that we need to include children in everything we do. We later welcomed both my son and Thelan, who were the taste testers for food demonstration—how to make a yummy smoothie that helps fussy children get their recommended intake of daily vegetables. The boys gave the smoothie a “thumbs up” for being yummy before we told them about the spinach!
Melanie Ferris (on the right) with Kelly Gordon, holding her baby and a copy of the DVD we produced for our conference workshops
We did some physical activity using the Aboriginal brochure from Health Nexus’ Have a Ball campaign. We talked about how it’s important to get active with Aboriginal children because we are a land-based people who need to be active in the outdoors in order to feel balanced. One idea I encouraged service providers to explore was doing community or container gardening as part of their programs—this helps our people to get fresh, healthy, and organic food while providing us with much needed physical activity.
Some questions that came up included, “How can we tell Aboriginal people to eat healthier when poverty is such an issue in our communities? How do people afford healthy food for their children when they have barely anything left after they pay for their housing?”
One answer is continuing to attend these types of conferences and workshops. As service providers, we need to get together to share our knowledge so we can build strong partnerships. This is something we have learned while doing our research on the Let’s be Healthy project.
Making partnerships in the community… where there’s no infrastructure what they’ve done is they’ve made partnerships. So Dovercourt is a great community centre. They have a pool, they have a skateboard park, they have a huge, you know, kind of state-of-the-art play structure, camps… so Minwaashin Lodge actually created a partnership with Dovercourt summer camp…
They got in a last-minute program with Minwaashin Lodge so that means, if there are some spaces available, then kids can go. Our kids were in camp almost the whole summer. That’s everything from going to a water park to, you know, skateboard, to learning how to be a lifeguard, and all those things. If we had to pay for that with six kids at a $125… there’s no way our kids would be able to have those opportunities, really, there’s really no way. We’re really fortunate in that sense.
~Jaime Koebel, artist, professional Métis cultural dancer, research and development officer for the Métis Settlements General Council, mother of three, and stepmother of three more
Aboriginal people with young children actually have access to a variety of programs that can truly help those on a limited budget. Attending a Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program at Anishnawbe Health Toronto probably helped me to save close to $100 every week on groceries thanks to their nutritional “supplements”—these included a healthy lunch three times a week, occasional supplies of fresh, local vegetables and fruits they had received through a food box sharing program, and delicious home-made food to bring home from a “community kitchen.” This is where we cook something yummy together, and then take some home in our reusable containers.
For more ideas for programming, Kelly and I have developed and recorded an MP3 called “Eating Healthy and Getting Active.” Each person who came to our session received a copy of this MP3. We’ll soon be making a series of MP3s available for both service providers and Aboriginal parents. Thanks to all the good people at the Aboriginal Nutrition Network at Dietitians of Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and the Nutrition Resource Centre for providing feedback to help us impove the information in our MP3.
Also thanks to Jack Palmer at the Métis Centre for sending us copies of the Métis Cookbook, volume 2. Some of our participants who volunteered for the food demos received these as a prize.
Check out these free resources:
• Have a Ball brochure: Learn ideas for activities with Aboriginal children ages 2 to 5
• Let’s Be Healthy Together: Get an overview of this project, and keep checking for updates
• Métis Cookbook (2008): View a PDF copy of this popular cookbook from the Métis Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization
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Check back for more resources in part 2 of 2: Using First Nations Ceremonies to Promote Bonding and Attachment.
This time I was happy to have about 35 women from across Ontario. Some of them had been with me for the entire day before. I told them I was honoured to have all that time with them and I meant it. I especially thank the people who came and hugged me or gave me their cards after the workshops!
