Our Path to Wellness – First Nations COVID-19 Response in Manitoba

Knowledge Keepers shared with us the importance of ceremony, traditional medicine, and connection to land during the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic First Nations led responds centered traditional medicine and ceremony when combating the virus, including providing traditional medicines and smudge at testing and vaccine clinics.

Dr. Marcia Anderson discusses ways to take care of spiritual health during the pandemic shared by Knowledge Keepers.

“And then it was that we only drank birch medicine throughout the whole epidemic. As we were gathering wood, but I have property. I’m lucky enough to have property with a big Bush and you know, trees and land. So we were always out at our farm. We call it the farm and we were harvesting medicine. And drinking medicine every day and making sure everybody had medicine and it was birch we were drinking.”

-Sherryl Blacksmith, Knowledge Keeper

“Oh, I don’t know what kind of medicine would help. I thought about my friend in Norway House I called him and I said do you have any COVID medicine? Yes. I said send me some. How do I do it? we’re locked down too. We did it through the mail. We got it the next day. She gave me instructions how to make it. That was a good medicine, one of the best medicine. When she made it, I went over to my room. I have prayed whatever prayers I needed. OK. This medicine can help. They made it for me from Mother Earth.”

-Knowledge Keeper

“[Cultural Coordinator] gifted us with teas he provided us. We had seven tree tea, we had weekay tea, we had cedar tea, we had mint tea, we had something that he called happy tea that it actually did make you feel happy after we had a cup of it.”

-Sandra, Turtle Team Member

“So I took my cedar out. I boiled my cedar. We did a lot of praying. We drank the cedar. We […] sweat with it. It might be hard to believe that, but we put our faith in that medicine, cedar, and that’s the only thing we use. We didn’t use no cough syrup, Tylenol, or any other kind of medicine that we usually go to when we’re sick. That’s the medicine we use, the cedar at home.”

-Mary Bryan, Knowledge Keeper

“But my grandchildren and children, I’ve taught them like I take them on the land. I make sure they know. But not all families are teaching them the connection to the land and how important that is to collect our medicines. Our medicines are hard to get, like they’re not easy […].”

-Sherryl Blacksmith, Knowledge Keeper

Self-isolation and social distancing brought people onto the land. Many shared stories of being able to use time to connect with the land and practices they were not able to before.

“We made maple syrup. That was the best time for me because I remember, I remember it took me back again to the time when I watched my late grandmother, my Nohkom, make Maple syrup. It was very hard work, but I truly enjoyed it and you know, like I miss that. You know, it didn’t deter us. We said we’re going, you know, we’re going to be together.”

– Knowledge Keeper on spending a month outdoors during COVID learning a very old skill, making maple syrup.

“It was tough for ceremony wise because we had to postpone a bunch. Like I did ceremony with just my family. And again, it’s that sounds selfish, but when you work for people, to finally be like to be able to have ceremony with just my children, just my grandchildren, it was so awesome.”

-Sherryl Blacksmith on sharing ceremony with immediate family

“We went out on the quad onto the land and even still do that. We’ve been on many outings to stay connected to the land, my son moved with me for the past 2 years now from the urban setting and this has made him into the loving and kind character he is. This event brought us closer together than ever and we want to showcase that with the other indigenous youth like us.”

– L.G, Skownan