Anishinaabe-owned health and wellness store opens its doors in Nipissing First Nation

By Kelly Anne Smith

NIPISSING FIRST NATION— Great tunes and a fish fry with sunshine and blue skies made for a great grand opening of Green Medicine in Duchesnay Village, Nipissing First Nation (NFN).

Green Medicine is NFN’s newest business and first alternative health and wellness store.

Opening the store is a dream come true for owners Mitch Dokis and Kerry Lynn Peltier.

Peltier called the day exciting.

“It’s nice to see our dream— our vision— come to fruition.”

The couple advises family, friends and clients on super foods. Boosting health has been the core of their small business since graduating from homeopathy ten years ago.

Dokis says Green Medicine aims to help people take control of their own health.

“Using natural avenues, we guide them in the right direction. By using super foods, which we call tonics, in small doses over periods of time— we get great results,” explains Dokis. “We have a three-pronged approach. It’s tonics, tinctures and homeopathy as lifestyle modification. You start healing and your body starts feeling better.”

“We need food to sustain us to live so part of our health and healing is the food that we ingest each day,” adds Peltier. “We know we are going to age as time goes on so we need to be eating those super foods and healthy foods so we’re not having to be on medication. We can age gracefully, having a good lifestyle with optimum health and a lot of energy.”

Peltier advocates for super foods such as Ceylon cinnamon and goji berries.

“It’s great to see Dr. Oz and everybody else, starting to incorporate the super foods. Our clients that we’ve had for ten years say we’ve been talking about this all along,” says Peltier. “That is what we always wanted. I went to school to be a meditation teacher. Half is to keep the mind in balance while healing in good health is also the food that we ingest. Our body and mind work together.”

Also available at Green Medicine is Birch Bark Coffee. Company founder Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, a citizen of Whitefish River First Nation, travelled from Ottawa to support Green Medicine for the grand opening. Marsolais-Nahwegahbow’s coffee is making a difference— $1 is donated from every coffee purchase and goes towards installing water purification systems on First Nations.

“Our communities have been mistreated on a national level. My goal is to bring clean drinking water to everybody. If I inspire others, they believe in the journey too.”

A cleansing smudge and the opening prayer was offered by Dot Beaucage-Kennedy before the celebratory speeches.

NFN Chief Scott McLeod and North Bay Mayor Al McDonald were on hand for the ribbon cutting.

Music by J.W. Stevens entertained the crowd while Carla’s Kitchen was busy cooking up free fish and chips dinner for the first 120 people who signed up for the Green Medicine loyalty program.

Green Medicine Assistant Manager Brittany Manitowabi hopes to integrate Indigenous art and crafts in support of local Indigenous artists.

Dokis and Peltier, together for 22 years, also celebrated their son Maximus Migizi Dokis turning six months old on Saturday.  Dokis calls Maximus a homeopathic baby.

“He’s a prime example of what it can do. He’s smiling all the time. He’s healthy. He’s going through teething and we are treating him with homeopathy. We want to share that and teach people about it.”