Anishinabek Nation hosts its third annual Diabetes Conference
By Laura Barrios
CHIPPEWAS OF RAMA FIRST NATION — The Anishinabek Nation welcomed over 100 participants including Anishinabek Nation member First Nations Diabetes workers, technicians, government representatives, and industry partners to the 3rd Annual Diabetes Conference held in Chippewas of Rama First Nation from March 5-6.
The two-day event was opened up by community Elder Stephanie Sandy with Thanksgiving, welcoming remarks from Anishinabek Nation Deputy Grand Council Chief Chris Plain, and recitation of the Ngo Dwe Waangizid Anishinaabe, the Anishinaabe Chi-Naaknigewin preamble, by Janine Knott, Anishinabek Nation Indigenous Health and Wellness Strategy Community Development Support Worker.
To start Day 1 of the conference, Marley Fisher from Munsee Delaware Nation, Registered Dietitian who serves as the Community Dietitian and Diabetes Educator for Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, spoke during the Community Spotlight: Chippewas of the Thames segment, exploring topics like nutrition counselling, nutrition education, and advocacy.
“Being Indigenous is not the risk; systems that have oppressed Nations causing significant intergenerational harm are the risk factor,” Fisher stated.
Return guest speaker Ryan Hooey, accompanied by his service dog, Joe, and Rosan Wesley discussed Self-Advocacy Flashcards for Indigenous Communities with Day 1 participants. The set of eight colour-coded cards is designed to support self-advocacy, created by and for Indigenous patients with various types of Diabetes, and are designed by an Indigenous artist with lived experience.
“They’re simple, easy-to-use, and they’re conversation starters,” Hooey explains. “A lot of times, families do not understand and think it’s your fault you have diabetes. These are aimed at breaking the stigma.”
Later in the day, Indigenous Health Scholar with McGill University Amy Shawanda from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory guided participants through Anishinaabe Sleep Practices, such as teachings and stories on sleep hygiene, dreams, colonized sleep, and sleep detoxing.
“Sleep is a core pillar of our health and affects how we’re going to function the next day,” Shawanda expressed. “Indigenous authors and scholars understand dream knowledge is part of the transformative paradigm.”
The afternoon included Associate Professor and Consultant Endocrinologist at the University of Calgary Dr. David Campbell who delved into the nexus between diabetes and homelessness, exploring the disproportionate number of homelessness within the Indigenous population, connecting causal factors including socio-economic and political factors leading to historic displacement, overcrowding and lack of public infrastructure, spiritual disconnection, mental disruption, relocation and mobility, to name a few.
“We know that it’s a complex issue rooted in many of these factors that are beyond people’s control,” stated Dr. Campbell during his Helping People Manage Diabetes in the Context of Homelessness presentation. “I think it’s very important for us to recognize that the structural contributors—the social welfare policies, the fact there is no affordable housing in this country, generally, the fact that people are subject to discrimination, racism, colonization…And all of that layers on top of these individual risk factors, which, again, are not necessarily about the individual but about the conditions in which they grew up in and with. There’s this complex interplay that’s between structural and individual factors that lead someone to not have a home.”
Dr. Campbell also shared the award-winning short-film, Low, which focuses on homelessness and social determinants of social inequities that affect clients of the participants in the room or those caring for someone experiencing homelessness, diabetes, or both.
“Thank you for showing this film – it accurately represents what is happening. The importance of healthcare in those systems is very much life and death,” expressed a participant who is also in the medical field and has experienced parallels of the film while working in shelters.
Dr. Samantha Boshart, a family physician practising in southwestern Ontario, spoke about Indigenous-led lower limb preservation project: Practical skills for the frontline. Dr. Boshart, who has been in the practice for 10 years, spoke of diabetic foot ulcers, foot fungus, and wounds; and pressure and swelling with a live demonstration on the optimal plantar pressure displacement. She also set out to equip the frontline workers and any participants who are living with diabetes or know someone living with diabetes with some tools to take home following her presentation. She walked participants through an interactive calf muscle pump activity, a live demonstration on how to assess footwear for those living with diabetes, as well as feeling for pulses in the feet using a vascular Doppler, and explained monofilament testing.
Day 1 also featured a presentation on Non-insured Health Benefits (NIHB) Overview with Brenda Owl and Zachariah General with Chiefs of Ontario; and Community Spotlight: Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation with Joseph Goode.
The second day of the conference also boasted a full day of informative and interactive presentations from excellent guest speakers. One Day 2 speaker included Dr. Alexa Lesperance, an Anishinaabe family physician and vice president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, who spoke about Cultural Wellness and the Science Behind It, shedding insight into the root of the problem.
“I firmly believe that diabetes is fully caused by colonization and the impacts it has had on our people,” stated Dr. Alexa Lesperance. “How I know this in my heart is because we didn’t have this disease prior to colonization. We were healthy and well. We have a very active lifestyle.”
Laura Bishop, Health Services Manager with Chippewas of Rama First Nation, led the conference’s final Community Spotlight that focused on what the diabetes team is undertaking within Chippewas of Rama First Nation, expanding on success of programs including but not limited to Monthly Cooking Class, Diabetic Retinopathy Eye Screening, and Diabetic Foot Care.
In addition to healthcare professionals sharing insight, Day 2 participants heard from Carmen Wabegijig and her son, Dylan, from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, during the Family Shared Experience on Living with Type 1 Diabetes presentation. Wabegijig acknowledged that the journey of diabetes management is difficult and long; however, she found one thing to be helpful.
“Education. Education was the best for any newly-diagnosed patient with diabetes, either Type 1 or Type 2,” she shared as she recalled the Type 1 diagnosis of her daughter, which later helped navigate the subsequent diagnosis of her son.
On Day 2, participants thanked the Anishinabek Nation Diabetes Conference Planning Committee members for their work in creating this opportunity for Diabetes Workers and technicians, healthcare professionals, and industry partners to come together to learn from one another to bring back home and to their communities and workplaces. The committee is comprised of by: Erika Weishar, RD, CDE, Chippewas of Rama First Nation (Southeast Region representative); Ivy McLean, RN, M’Chigeeng First Nation (Lake Huron Region representative); Lorraine Cook, CHR, Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek (Northern Superior Region representative); Marley Fisher, RD, CDE, Chippewas of the Thames (Southwest Region representative); and Julie Harris, Diabetes Navigator for the Anishinabek Nation Health Secretariat.
Day 2 also featured a presentation on Chronic Kidney Disease Screening in First Nations Communities: Experience and Lessons Learned at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) with Manager of Adult Diabetes, Renal Clinic, and Peritoneal Dialysis Laura Arnts and Renal Nurse Navigator with PRHC Krista Morgan; Community Supports for the Type 1 Diabetic Community by representatives from Breakthrough T1D, Lara Green, National Manager, Research, and Training Programs, and Miriam Dos Anjos, Volunteer and Community Managed for Ontario; a workshop with on both the Libre and Dexcom glucose monitors with Susie Jin, Pharmacist who serves on several Diabetes Canada committees; and Scott Simpson of Beausoleil First Nation and operator of Spirit Fit, led participants in pump-up activities during the movement segments throughout the conference.