Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
To access this full bulletin, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins/June-18-2010.pdf
For all bulletins, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins.html
To join MNCHP, email mcnhp@healthnexus.ca
Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
To access this full bulletin, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins/Special%20bulletins/June-04-2010_bullying.pdf
For all bulletins, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins.html
To join MNCHP, email mcnhp@healthnexus.ca
Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
To access this full bulletin, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins/May-21-2010.pdf
For all bulletins, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins.html
To join MNCHP, email mcnhp@healthnexus.ca
By Melanie Ferris, Aboriginal health promotion consultant
Diane Longboat is a traditional teacher from Six Nations of the Grand River. Earlier this year, she said to me, “Our people have the answers.”
I’ve put her quote in the beginning of many of the new books I’ve been working on, books on nutrition, physical activity, and healthy communities. I put the quote in several books to keep reminding myself and my readers that Aboriginal people know what we need to be healthy.
For so long our Aboriginal people knew this. We knew what animals and plants to use to help us stay healthy—and many of us still know these things. Yet today many of us are also like everyone else, getting our food from grocery stores and restaurants and getting our exercise walking to and from our cars! (yikes)
This week I was once again reminded that our people have the answers when I presented a short session on the Let’s Be Healthy project at an Aboriginal health forum here in Toronto. The forum was organized by “Insight,” some of you will probably know them. I was interested in attending a long while ago but when I saw the price tag ($1795!) for two days, I just couldn’t imagine it.
My session was on Monday morning. There were about 40 people, most of them were health directors from First Nations (including some northern ones), a few were front line workers, a few were policy folks, and so on.
The training was on the 27th floor of a financial distract skyscraper. I thought it was a funny place for Aboriginal people to do training. As I write this blog posting, my body sits comfortably on Mother Earth, reminding myself to stay grounded and connected.
Going to these conferences, even when they’re on the 27th floor, helps me to stay connected with my people. I especially appreciate the ones who sit near me at lunch to tell me about the types of berries that grow in their northern communities, about the programs that they see as success stories, and who tell me how they acquire wild meat since they’ve moved themselves to urban centres.
People often might look to those of us who stand at the front of a conference room and think, “Hey, they have the answers.” Indeed, some of us have ideas, but the answers about Aboriginal health and well-being are in the blood memory of each one of those who is Indigenous.
While I was standing at the front of the room (I much prefer being in a circle!) looking at all the beautiful people, I asked, “If you were a health care provider, how would you talk to an Aboriginal parent about child hood obesity or healthy weights?”
People started saying things like “feasts,” “programs for the whole family,” “storytelling,” etc…. all those who suggested traditional cultural activities got a small prize to encourage this type of approach. Using cultural methods of dealing with health issues is important and our people already know this!
Our Let’s Be Healthy Together project focuses on the strengths of Aboriginal peoples in Ontario. Sure, we have tons of health problems and issues we’re dealing with, but we already have the answers. We have to return to our traditional ways as much as we can when living in the modern world—this could mean simple steps such as creating a garden in your backyard or at your school to help children access vegetables and fruits that are pesticide free and locally grown!
The person speaking after me came from an e-health business, and he was non-Aboriginal. He came up and gave us a lot of scary statistics about Canadian health, and he told us that we need to stop relying on Canada’s health care system and start taking control of our own health. I agree that each one of us needs to be responsible for eating properly, keeping our medical records updated, etc.
This man was coming from a non-Aboriginal perspective and I didn’t hear him acknowledge any of the barriers that are put in place for us as Aboriginal people to achieve our good health—for example, how do we keep eating our traditional foods when our governments allow corporations to come and pollute our land and waterways, hence polluting our animals and plants? It’s hard to be healthy when you cannot get safe drinking water or fish that are not filled with mercury. It’s in these cases where reconciliation comes in–one part of this is non-Aboriginal people acknowledging what has been done in Canada and working with our Aboriginal communities to stand up for health rights!
Our Let’s Be Healthy toolkit also tries to bring knowledge to the perspectives of non-Aboriginal service providers, including information on why it’s so important to acknowledge our lived and daily experience as Aboriginal people struggling to be in control of our own health.
Our project is rolling along. It’s been a challenge to include and balance both evidence-based medical information into our toolkit along with the approaches and realities within our First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities. The toolkit is not going to cure childhood obesity, but hopefully it’s going to encourage everyone to start remembering the knowledge they have within themselves to be healthy.
As our toolkit goes to print, we’re busy booking five regional training sessions across Ontario. We’ve been trying to book training sessions with Aboriginal agencies, so if you know of any that fit 50 people for training in Ottawa, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, or Windsor/London/Chatam, then please email me. We’re also looking for musicians (drum groups, fiddlers) and Elders for each session so feel free to send those ideas as well.
We’ll post the dates and training details up on our project’s website as we get them.
Save the date!
September 1 and 2, 2010
Dryden, Ontario
Health care providers can learn to use the Let’s Be Healthy Together toolkit over an interactive 2-day training session
Details and registration coming soon!
Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
To access this full bulletin, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins/May-07-2010.pdf
For all bulletins, see http://www.beststart.org/services/bulletins.html
To join MNCHP, email mcnhp@healthnexus.ca
Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
THE FATHER TOOLKIT
An excellent tool for organizations to help build father capacity and to become more father inclusive in organizational practice and policy. The Father Toolkit was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and has been disseminated across Canada has also been used in both Australia and Japan.
For more information, contact fii-on.chair@cfii.ca or call FII-ON at 613-257-2779 ext 112.
English version:
http://www.mydad.ca/toolkits/nfp_toolkit_eng.pdf
French version:
Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
… new resources in 8 different languages for newcomers to Canada who are pregnant, new parents or planning a pregnancy.
We know that these will be welcomed by community members and service providers alike!
( Languages include Arabic, Filipino, Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Tamil and Urdu. )
Please join us for the launch of this exciting initiative
on Thursday, May 13, 2010,
from 6.00 to 7.30 pm
at Oakham House, 63 Gould Street, Toronto (see map link below)
RSVP – Ronald Dieleman at r.dieleman@healthnexus.ca or 416-408-6910
Refreshments will be served.
By Melanie Ferris, Aboriginal Health Promotion Consultant
I’m almost finished. I’ve been writing some books for the Let’s Be Healthy Together toolkit. One focuses on nutrition, another on physical activity, and one more on the state of our Aboriginal communities in Ontario.
Water is a recurring theme throughout the writing. It has to be. We can’t be healthy without it.
Yet water is a major concern for any Indigenous community across the world. Corporations and governments pollute the sources of our drinking water and our food, all for economic “development.”
We don’t talk enough about water, as far as I’m concerned.
So this morning I was happy to come together with other people who are concerned about the water. I attended the first Unity Dialogue organized by the Dodem Kanonsha in Toronto. The Dodem is a beautiful little lodge, a sanctuary in the midst of busy high-rise government office in Toronto.
Leading the dialogue were Elders Sara Smith (Mohawk) and Maria Brazeau (Inuk), along with Medicine Song Women Brenda McIntyre and scholar Debbie Daynard.
Each woman shared her thoughts and encouraged questions and dialogue. The Elders did ceremonies, told stories, and helped all of the participants understand how deeply significant water is to every life on earth.
The Unity Dialogue continues tomorrow from 10am to 3pm on Thursday, April 29th. The women leading the ceremony expressed their sadness that policy makers from the government do not attend these sessions more. People making policies about water in our First Nations communities need to understand the significance of our water.
I’m not sure that the decision makers in the US know the significance of water (even if they did start an organic garden at the White House). There is this whole crazy situation with the oil rig that has exploded. This story about how the US government is now going to burn the oil on the water is in the news today, and it takes my breath away. Is polluted air (and a diminished ozone?) better than wrecked ecosystems? The whole situation should remind us about the importance of protecting our waters.
Across the world, women are the keepers of the waters. As part of my duty, I’m educating my 4-year-old son about the water. He’s responsible to learn everything he can about the water if his children are to have any hope of still being able to find any drinkable water on this earth.
Posted by Meghan Boston-McCracken, Bilingual Information Specialist
Inactive kids under five demonstrating dangerous lifestyle habits
Les enfants inactifs de moins de cinq ans démontrent de dangereuses habitudes de vie
English: http://www.activehealthykids.ca/Home.aspx
Français: http://www.activehealthykids.ca/Francais.aspx?lang=fr-ca
