Wellness in our Community

Health and Wellness

As someone who has been on both sides of health care I am very passionate about our peoples wellness. I believe we have the right to individualized quality care, to advocate for our right to make informed decisions, and to balance our health care with traditional and holistic medicine and supports.

Health is often understood as the absence of illness. Wellness includes our happiness, how we relate to our self worth, and how we feel about our lives. It encompasses our optimal health and vitality by including:

  • physical well-being

  • emotional well-being

  • intellectual well-being

  • spiritual well-being

  • interpersonal well-being

  • social well-being

  • financial well-being

  • mental well-being

  • environmental well-being


My goal is not to promote our health but also our wellness.

When we begin to seek wellness as individuals we begin to achieve wellness as a nation. We are a strong and resilient people. Many of us have faced trauma either first hand or generational. We are all healing from something and each of us walks our path at our own pace. I hope to facilitate an openness for some to begin and for others to continue to heal and find wellness.

We understand that health and wellness are not linear or universal. Every one of us has our own base line and will respond to treatments, medicines, and procedures differently. What may be good for one person may not be good for another. Health care should not be a one size fits all. That is why I strongly promote advocacy and informed decisions in health care.

It is no secret that our health care system is overextended and some may consider it to be failing. Doctors and nurses are often overworked and under appreciated. Medical professionals statistically have one of the highest rates of burn out and often feel drained, tired, sad, irritable and some lose passion for their work. This can affect the quality of care we receive. This is based off of public information as well as personal experience.

That is why it is important for our members to be able to explore treatment options, to access information from more than one credible source, to incorporate wellness plans that meet traditional and modern practices, and to have the right to access or be an advocate for their care and wellness.

I would like to see the nation invest in a dedicated and readily available Indigenous Liaison Nurse (ILN) or have the following incorporated into our current health department services:

  • unwavering respect and confidentiality

  • bridging gaps in healthcare

  • advocating for vulnerable patients

  • acting as an appointment companion to assist with asking clarifying questions to ensure that members understand their diagnosis and treatment options

  • helping members process and retain information regarding their health

  • ensuring cultural and spiritual sensitivities are respected and integrated into all healthcare experiences

  • assisting with access to supports and resources

  • supporting members and their families when undergoing health crisis

  • coordinating wellness plans between care providers

  • incorporating traditional and holistic medicines and practices

  • advocating for access to information and research from multiple credible sources

  • coordinating appointments and ensuring access to supports for assistance with travel and accommodation when required

  • coordinating and offering qualified customized levels of home care support when needed

  • ensuring the same level of care and support is also available to members that live outside of the community

  • easy access to information of supports and resources

  • crisis intervention and supports

  • culturally safe confidential counselling services available in person and online

  • treating every member accessing health and wellness services with kindness and respect

Wellness in Community

As a mother to 3 young children, with hopes of achieving housing within the community in the future, I am dedicated to ensuring that our community is a strong, safe, healthy, and prosperous environment for us and for generations to come.

Our people, particularly our youth, deserve an environment in which they can thrive. I believe that we are all an extension of one another. We all deserve to feel comfortable, safe and proud of our community. We must respect our environment, our community, and one another. We can make this possible by coming together to determine the actions and behaviours that we feel are acceptable within our community. Our goal should always be the betterment and wellness of our people. We must collectively determine what will help and what will hinder that goal.

Our foundations for success could include the following:

  • offering genuine, individualized and confidential wraparound support

  • developing and implementing concrete community rules and regulations

  • prompting accountability and implementing consequences when necessary

  • making space for respectful, productive and open conversations

  • problems brought forward must be accompanied by possible solutions

  • ensuring that members feel heard, validated, and respected

  • cultivating and maintaining a safe environment

  • continuing connection and updating our members off reserve

The goal is to become a strong nation that has healed. We want our nation to be rich in the revitalization of language and culture. We want to successfully achieve self governance, self sufficiency, and self sustainability. We want to share pride with our ancestors and future generations of the work that we put into our community today. We want to come come together as one. If each and every one of us are not actively working towards this, then we are collectively working against it. We succeed when we all care about the goal and begin to apply ourselves.

I would like to see all of our members prioritizing the learning language and culture, spending time with elders, prioritizing the safety of our youth, participating in community wellness events, working on personal wellness, and developing skills that align with our self sufficiency and sustainability.

Working towards our goals include investing in the education and experience of our members in the following:

  • trades such as electrician, plumbing, wood and metal work, and mechanics

  • hunting, fishing, and foraging

  • food preservation such as canning, smoking, freeze drying, and dehydrating

  • farming and agriculture

  • food processing and storage

  • rain harvesting/ water collection, use of grey water

  • herbal medicine, first aid, and health care

As members and a community, we are the living representation of our ancestors. We have a due diligence to our ancestors and future generations to unite in bettering our people, to strengthen ourselves, to grow, and to advance. All members should be learning and sharing culture, language, and stories in any possible capacity. Collectively we should be looking at what we can do for our community rather than what we will gain. I would like to see members healing, learning, attending community events, and participating in rotational community remediation efforts.

To foster a nation and community that we can be proud of we can:

  • spend more time with and taking care of our elders

  • participating in individual and collective wellness workshops

  • continue to learn and share language and orthography

  • continue sharing and preserving stories and legends

  • renew ourselves while staying true to our heritage and values

  • participating in community remediation efforts

Youth Empowerment

I would like to promote youth empowerment and wellness by furthering access to beneficial programs and activities. I believe that by coordinating and investing in more sports, hobbies, and supports we can help set them up for success. My idea is to have a ‘gathering place’ specifically for youth. This would be a safe and quiet space with access to tutoring, study groups, support persons, counselling, residents elders, wellness workshops, healthy food, courses and opportunities for training and work experience, and of course would evolve as youth contributed their ideas to what types of supports, programs and activities they would like to see implemented. This could be in collaboration with any existing youth groups and the health department. The purpose would be to encourage self esteem, sense of self and confidence while exercising responsibility and accountability. I hope that as a community we can come together to make this happen. I hope you will join me in cultivating safe spaces to promote health and wellness and to set our children up for success.