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Our knowledge keepers often refer to spring as a time of awakening, renewal, and the arrival of new life that appears after the long winter of hibernation.
In the Tsek’ehne First Nation’s calendar, for example, the transition is quite literally from wətənehk’aneh (ice forms on the snow) to k’anawdeslətneh (patches of bare ground appear) to nawdijilneh (things begin to grow). Then the sas (black bears) play.
For all our Peoples, the celebration of the spring equinox brings with it earlier sunrises and later sunsets. The sun’s rays cascade across Turtle Island for a longer duration, warming the earth and waterways. The last signs of winter slowly give way to healthy, lush green grasslands, flower blossoms, and tree buds. Rivers and streams swell with melting snow and ice travelling down from distant rugged mountains.
The renewal of our health, like of the arrival of spring, is connected to the land. The interdependence of our health and the land is underscored in two recent installments of the NCCIH’s Voices from the Field podcast series: Our Highway, Our Tears: Indigenous Women’s and Two Spirit People’s Health and Resource Extraction and Youth Protection, Social Determinants of Health, and Reappropriation of Decision-Making Power: Quebec First Nations Demands.
Similarly, the recently published Indigenous health in federal, provincial, and territorial health policies and systems report explores the laws, policies, and treaties that support the health of Indigenous people in Canada, while suggesting policy improvements, underscoring gaps and suggesting areas for further investigation.
Health equity considerations are at the heart of several other new NCCIH publications. The Physical activity fact sheet draws on our 2021 literature review and environmental scan of sports and recreation programs and partnerships across Canada produced as part of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Let’s Get Moving initiative. The Improving access to mental health and addictions services and supports for older Indigenous adults, using a cultural safety and equity lens report discusses current strategies and innovations for improving the accessibility, availability, and acceptability of culturally safe mental health and addiction services and supports for our Elders. The Knowledge, perspectives, and use of cannabis among Indigenous populations in Canada in the context of cannabis legalization: A review of the literature report explores the diverse knowledges, perspectives, and uses of cannabis among First Nation, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. It concludes with a list of resources as well as a discussion on knowledge gaps that must be addressed in designing culturally relevant and high-quality public health initiatives in Indigenous communities.
If you are interested in knowing about other publications, please see our visit our web site or subscribe to our mailing list to receive notifications of newly released NCCIH resources, upcoming webinars and our regular seasonal newsletters. Please enjoy and share our knowledge resources with your community and networks, and if you have not already done so, join us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Vimeo, YouTube, SoundCloud, or ISSUU to participate in updates as they happen.
Finally, as Dr. Margo Greenwood bids us a final farewell, we were both welcomed aboard to take our places as NCCIH’s new Academic Co-leads. On behalf of all the staff at the NCCIH, we wish you renewed health in 2023 and beyond, and we look forward to sharing our work with you over the coming months and years.
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