Library and Academic Services: Indigenous Health & Well-Being: Healing and Wellness

Healing and Wellness - Introduction

Healing and Wellness

Indigenous health and wellness is based on a holistic model of health and is often overlooked in the prevention and treatment of chronic conditions and in the promotion of health and wellness. An integral focus of Indigenous healing and wellness is through the balance and inter-relationships of the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of a being.

Websites and Documents

National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health
The National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) is a national Aboriginal organization established in 2005 by the Government of Canada and funded through the Public Health Agency of Canada to support First Nations, Inuit, and Métis public health renewal and health equity through knowledge translation and exchange.
Wellness and the First Nations Health Authority (BC)
To achieve a healthy lifestyle, the First Nations Health Authority has identified 4 key Wellness Streams. These Streams represent wellness areas that - if pursued - could greatly improve First Nations health and wellness. Wellness streams include being active, eating healthy, nurturing spirit and respecting tobacco.
Spiritual and Cultural Care
A Spiritual & Cultural Care Provider is available to patients and their families, and all region staff for support and Ceremonies. Many WRHA facilities accommodate smudges and other ceremonies. All faiths are recognized and WRHA Indigenous Health can connect patients and clients with the appropriate resources at each site.
Traditional Medicine for Canada's First Peoples
When the first explorers reached the shores of North America it is estimated that there were over 2,000 indigenous tribes with over one million inhabitants stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. It did not take the early settlers very long to become impressed with the advanced therapeutic knowledge of their new found neighbors, for traditional healers were highly conversant with a wide diversity of plant medicine usages and other elements of nature-based preventatives and therapeutics.
Traditional Knowledge Systems in the Arctic
An understanding of traditional knowledge and how it differs from non-indigenous knowledge is an important basis for determining how to use it. Knowing what it contains and how it is acquired and held is fundamental to being able to make good use of the knowledge and to encourage all parties to be aware of the added value its use will bring.
Traditional Wellness and Healing (First Nations Health Authority BC)
Traditional wellness is central to the goal of improving and transforming First Nations health in BC. Through the guidance of Traditional Healers, as well as through the shared goals of communities and the First Nations health governing bodies, traditional wellness is an important part of a healthier future.
Canada Needs a "Health in All Policies" Action Plan Now
Health in All Policies is an approach that systematically considers the health and social implications of policies contemplated by all sectors of government — aiming for synergistic benefits and to minimize social and health-related harms. Health in All Policies is a critical policy lever because many of the drivers for health outcomes — including risk factors for disease, inequitable access to care, and the socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health and wellness — are beyond the reach of the health sector.

Library Resources

Traditional Medicines

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge by Nancy J. Turner
Location: E 98 .B7 T87 2014 (Located at NDC)
Volume one : The history and practice of Indigenous plant knowledge -- Volume Two: The place and meaning of plants in Indigenous cultures and worldviews.
The Medicine Wheel Garden: Creating Sacred Space for Healing, Celebration, and Tranquility by E. Barrie Kavasch
Location: E 98 .M4 K38 2002 (Located at NDC)
An authentic, beautifully illustrated guide to transforming gardens--and lives--with medicinal plants and healing rituals.
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask by Mary Siisip Geniusz
Location: E 99 .C6 G47 2015 (Located at NDC)
Geniusz makes Anishinaabe botanical information available to Native and non-Native healers and educators and emphasizes the Anishinaabe culture that developed the knowledge and practice.
Sacred Plant Medicine: The Wisdom in Native American Herbalism by Stephen Harrod Buhner; Brooke Medicine Eagle Staff (Foreword by)
Location: E 98 .B7 B74 2006 (Located at NDC)
Indigenous peoples the world over have been able to gather knowledge of plant uses by communicating directly with plants and honoring this sacred relationship.

Videos

Every year Winnipeg Health Region volunteers harvest sweetgrass, sage, and cedar - sacred medicines used by some Aboriginal cultures - to be used throughout the region in traditional healing and ceremonies. Betty Ross, Spiritual/Cultural Care Provider for the region's Aboriginal Health Programs, talks about the significance of picking and using sweetgrass, one of the four sacred medicines.

Indigenous Plant Diva
Cease Wyss is a woman who understands the remarkable healing powers of the plants growing all over downtown Vancouver. Whether it's the secret curl of a fiddlehead, or the gentleness of comfrey, plants carry ageless wisdom with them, communicated through colour, texture, and form. Wyss has been listening to this unspoken language and is now passing this ancient and intimate connection down to her own daughter, Senaqwila.

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