LITTLE CURRENT—Next Wednesday and Thursday, May 14 and 15, the Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre will play host to a knowledge symposium titled ‘Self Care – A Tool Towards Building Capacity’ from the people of the M’Chigeeng Raising the Spirit Mental Wellness Team.
The conference begins on Wednesday morning with a keynote address from Waneek Horn-Miller, a Mohawk from Kahnawake, who, during the 1990 Oka crisis was stabbed by a Canadian soldier’s bayonet, causing a turning point in her life. Ms. Horn-Miller is perhaps best known for her 2000 co-captainship of the Canadian Olympic women’s water polo team and has since become a First Nations rights activist and acts as the Assembly of First Nations IndigenACTION Ambassador. Following Ms. Horn-Miller’s address, attendees have among eight different workshops to choose from among them ‘designing workshops that enhance health and wellness,’ ‘the four needs to a healthy life’ and ‘laughter yoga’ that continue on into the afternoon.
The following day, Thursday, workshops begin again at 10 am and continue until 3:30 pm with keynote speaker for the day Brenda Restoule beginning the day’s proceedings. Ms. Restoule is a psychologist who works for the Nipissing First Nation and was instrumental in getting the Raising the Spirit pilot project off the ground.
Carianne Agawa, Raising the Spirit program coordinator, explained that the term self-care is to take care of oneself and let go of things in order to move forward, both for themselves and the people for whom they are caring. The conference, she said, is geared toward front line workers who deal with mental health and addictions.
“We often have unhealthy individuals trying to make other people healthy, but the clients just don’t buy it,” Ms. Agawa said.
She noted that while the spiritual and mental aspects of care of a patient are number one, physical activity is lacking while it is proven that exercise helps with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which a portion of this conference will address.
The symposium will conclude on Thursday evening with entertainment by well-known comedians Ron Kanutski and Patrick Cheechoo and Juno award winning First Nations blues band Digging Roots. All are encouraged to attend with a canned goods collection at the door in lieu of a cover charge.
