First Nation traditional healers prepared to support communities to deal with H1N1 virus
Traditional healers might help fight swine flu
Aug. 9 2009 - The Canadian Press - Shannon Montgomery
For a sore throat, the roots of a type of plant that grows in the water.
For a fever, the gum and needles of a spruce tree, boiled together and swallowed first thing in the morning.
To prevent the spread of infection, the inner and outer bark of the spruce, given to everyone in a household.
These are just a few of the techniques aboriginal healer Be'sha Blondin would use to fight swine flu if it came to her community.
Aboriginals have been hit particularly hard by the H1N1 virus that has been implicated in more than 60 deaths across Canada. Leaders have pointed out that a shortage of health-care workers and supplies, overcrowding and a lack of running water have made many remote reserves more vulnerable to the spread of disease.
Blondin said traditional healers are eager to face the challenges of the rapidly spreading flu.
"I've always wondered how come the scientists and the medical people never ask the medicine people for help," she said from her home in Yellowknife. "We as traditional medicine (people) use a lot of medicines on the land, and we have all kinds of medicine to help any kind of new diseases that come up."
In Manitoba, many of the province's most severe cases have involved aboriginals. Leaders there say that while the H1N1 flu has affected 20 people in every 100,000 in Canada, that number jumps to 135 in 100,000 for Manitoba's First Nations.
Sydney Garrioch, the grand chief of 30 communities in northern Manitoba -- more than half of which are accessible only by plane -- said members are meeting to figure out how traditional healers can help ahead of an expected resurgence of the virus this fall.
Only about two-thirds of the communities have nursing stations and less than half get regular visits from doctors. If a storm were to roll in, especially in winter, it would be hard to get supplies in or sick people out.
"That's the basis of it -- there's only limited health professionals, limited medical supplies or drugs, or a vaccine, and other things that are required for treatment," said Garrioch. "That's where we kind of develop the medicines within our regions, what can be harvested and what is sustainable."
Treating the whole person
Traditional healers don't just look at symptoms, they treat the whole person, said Blondin. Prayers are said before the medicine is administered, and the spiritual side is considered as important as the physical side.
People dealing with emotional issues, ranging from their experience in residential schools to sexual and physical abuse, may be vulnerable to illness, and that should be addressed if healing is to take place.
"We have to make sure, as medicine people, we heal all aspects before we let that patient go."
Dr. Chandrakant Shah, who works at an aboriginal clinic in downtown Toronto, said while he practises Western-style medicine, he often refers patients to a traditional healer who works down the hall.
He agrees that health involves the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states.
In many aboriginal communities, a loss of identity has resulted in chronic stress that can take a toll on one's health and vulnerability to disease, he said.
Shah says it's tough to say what remedies traditional healers might use to fight the flu virus and how effective they might be, because many of their methods have been kept secret.
One story that has stayed with him involves a diabetic patient with an ulcer on his foot so deep it was almost possible to see the bone. Shah sent him to hospital to consult with orthopedic and plastic surgeons, both of whom said amputation was the only treatment.
The patient refused and returned to the clinic, where Shah contacted a traditional healer. The healer used a compound made of leaves on the wound three times a day. Six weeks later, to the amazement of all the doctors involved, the would had healed completely.
"This doesn't mean we should say we won't provide them with Tamiflu because they're using their 'herbal remedies,"' he said. "To me, having these two side by side would be a great benefit. Neither of them would work individually, but collectively there would be a synergy."
Garrioch said elders from his community will meet later this month to discuss what needs to be done to collect and prepare traditional medicine before the snow flies.
Blondin said she's also discussing the issue with other healers from across Canada, hoping to set up a network of those who can help fight H1N1.
"If the medical people could ask us for help, we could be healing lots of people, we could be using our spiritual ways of healing, though song and through hands-on healing."
"We can be able to help them."