Health 4 All

29/10/2023

Whacheeyea /Hello all my Relations and Friends!

Just needed to share something for now which I found quite strange but humbling to see the message.
Firstly, I woke up early this morning as I couldn’t sleep in (like I would normally do on a weekend). During my morning, I happen to see grandmother moon setting to the west. In the picture, you can’t see her face but she sort of had a grin to her smile…

Later on, I had to go to the garbage dump site to discard and burn some garbage. After I did what I needed to do to burn garbage. Before and during that time, there were a bunch of crows sitting around the site, and would fly off when they seen me coming close to them. Like I said, I did what I needed to do to burn garbage.
However, before I left the site, a crow happen to fly into my direction and landed very close to me. He had something in his mouth, and after close observation, it was one of those plastic disposable gloves. The crow was very close to me, not more then 10 feet away, and it was like he wanted me to watch him eating and swallowing the glove that he had in his mouth. The crow swallowed the whole glove. He then flew away, but landed quickly again in the distance.., and again, picked up another disposable glove, and had it in his mouth, attempting to chew it down so he could eat and swallow down his second glove. I didn’t have my iPhone…

In our culture, we were instructed to burn our garbage so that animals cannot get into the food or waste you are throwing away. As according to my late dad, this was important to him, that a hole be dug, throw in your garbage, and to burn it. He said that this was ok because Mother Earth regenerates herself. Mother Earth would look after herself.
On the other side of this synopsis, we are poisoning the earth by leaving the garbage out for the animals to eat and digest…. The crow was actually looking at me while he had that glove In his mouth, and I spoke to him to offer my apologies as in our custom.Lucky, I had to***co on hand, and offered to***co for our animal kingdom and the whole ecosystem.
We need to look after Mother Earth, because if we don’t, it will protect herself. Why do you think we have climate change and everything else we see and hear happening all over the world….

This is all I wanted to share for now. There are other very important matters that (still) need to be addressed, but maybe not here on Fb. We need to be more proactive as Treaty people and start asserting our own sovereignty.

Whacheeyea Missiway,

Danny

17/05/2022

“Very grateful for all the Blessings and thoughts from the people, I am filled with emotions by the love and kindness not only for myself, but for everyone and for that I am truly humbled and grateful” – Gregory Koostachin.

This was one of the last testaments my dad said in his last days he had with us before returning to Heaven. I cherish his knowledge and the words/advice he provided to our attention, and I will continue the advocacy to remove the bureaucracy hindered by our people.

I started my hourly daily walks since April 10th, 2022 the day my dad left this physical world to another dimension which to us is unknown but as many believe, it is a journey that is filled with everlasting peace, love, and comfort. Up to now, I have taken this time to digest the series of events and circumstances leading to my dad’s death and started to accept that he is not physically here with me anymore. During my walks, I take that time to reflect, meditate, de-stress, pray, and to improve my own physical health & wellbeing. Most importantly, it only justifies and reaffirms one of Dr. Martin Luther King’s quotes “Our lives begin to end the day when we become silent about the things that matter”. We have been silent too long, we can no longer be silent or silenced!

Far too long, we have been imposed and entrenched in controlled colonial structures, systems or programs that try to serve our people, but we are aware, the colonial system is not working for us. At the same token, we continue to perpetuate the cycle of dysfunction and dependency simply by continuing to operate and function with imposed unworkable legislations, policy frameworks and funding disparities. We have to challenge the status quo and change the mindset in order to choose our own path that are beneficial and sustaining. We must take ownership of these problematic systems and assert control over our own destinies. As stated in the Royal Commission on Aboriginals Peoples in respect to Aboriginal Peoples, Self-Government and the Constitution, “the time has come for tears of sorrow to be wiped away and our throats cleared of dust, and for us to speak in a frank and open fashion about our future in this land that we share”. It is truly a path forward

With that said, I am trying to reignite the fire and questioned the pace of progress and improvement on all matters that affect our lives, especially in health. I have reached out to some people who are in political office or has political affiliation or influence, senior health professionals and people in health occupations, and political tribal council and their senior officials. I am calling on them to do their part by collaboratively working and in true partnership to make the much needed transformative and fundamental changes affecting our lives. Grassroots also need to be engaged and be part of the solutions and strategic planning in forging forward.

In closing, I am requesting a discussion table of where we are at with Health Transformation, Negotiations, and Timeframes. I am also requesting to start breaking down silos, jurisdiction barriers, bureaucracy, and challenges in order to fully serve the client/patient in need. In the meantime, I continue to walk until I see genuine progress and commitment. If you believe that these changes are required, then let's all do this together as the grassroots to begin the much needed work. We are stronger together. To show support, simply Like this page and share.

Thank you.

Sylvia Koostachin-Metatawabin

01/05/2022

01/05/2022

HEALTH 4 ALL
Although I knew that the death of my father or mother is inevitable, as part of our life cycle, that knowledge does not lessen the grief and the sorrow I felt when my dad left this world. The death of a loved one alters one both physically, emotionally and psychologically. Nothing is ever the same again: it changes our intimate and world surroundings and outlook in moving forward.
On April 10, 2022 at 2:09 am, my hero, the person named Gregory Koostachin, whom I had the privilege to call Dad, took his last breath and started another spiritual journey. I am forever grateful and fortunate to have had a man that despite his imperfections and personal struggles showed me strength, compassion, love, humility, humour, generosity, acceptance, and most of all forgiveness. Thank you Dad from the depth of my soul for everything, and for that, I am truly BLESSED.
Dad’s Health Issues
Our dad had many health related issues, which eventually lead to complications and eventually his death. He had his share of medical appointments, medivacs, and hospital stays, some of which were prolonged. Nonetheless, Dad was determined to live and he took care of his health seriously. However, accessing medical appointments and care was challenging, especially when Dad started losing more of his independence and mobility. Getting any appropriate medical care in the remote north certainly does not help. In Attawapiskat, we do have a hospital and public health facility, but they are ill resourced and ill equipped. They do not have the resources to provide continuing care to those in need. My dad was elderly, it makes me ponder over how many other elders, and those that are sick manage. There is no long term or palliative care in my community. So for those that require ongoing medical attention, they have to leave their community to fly out to Moose Factory or Kingston, Ontario.
Accessing Dad’s medical appointments was challenging and the medical unit that manages travel for patients did not help either. They lacked empathy – dictating when, where, and with who patients should travel with, without any explanation or purpose of medical visits. Dad got frustrated with the travel medical visits and having to deal with different attending physicians (each time) along with their inconsistent diagnosis and opinions for his various ailments. With numerous medication changes/and dosages, these became overwhelming to manage and to deal with the side effects, especially with the inconsistency of his medical guide. There were no follow-ups or continuing care. I believe my Dad could have lived longer if he received the appropriate care and attention, but our fragmented health system—is not serving our people’s needs.
Our People, Our Treaty Right to Health
On many occasions, Dad questioned our fragmented health care system and services especially access. One of my last conversations with him had to do with our current health care service and access in our remote region. He said “Danis, (daughter) we have to continue to address the inequalities and inadequate health care of our people once and for all. So many of our members are needlessly still falling through the cracks and dying. We need a serious discussion as to what our understanding of health care and delivery is as we understood it to be under our treaty.” He added on saying that we must all come and work together instead of operating in colonial, jurisdictional, compartmentalized mindset when it comes to health care and delivery to our members at large.
Prior to my dad’s death, I made a personal vow on that day when my dad leaves us from the physical world, I would walk daily for at least an hour to bring about awareness and a call for immediate action on our much needed change and improvements of our regional health care system. Our Health Care disparity and inequalities that perpetuates longing standing crisis must be changed. A transformative change needs to happen today. We are asking for an equitable access to health care delivery within our region that truly reflects our uniqueness and distinct needs of all our members.
Health 4 All
I am calling upon the key players from various government levels and agencies to start this dialogue right away in a true honest manner. We are all too familiar with on-going inequalities and gaps when it comes to opportunities and access (in a timely fashion) to a quality health care in our region. We have heard on-going testimonial (both directly and indirectly) from our members regarding their challenges, obstacles, and limited access to quality of care. We have also heard from our own tribal council leaderships, local hospitals and agencies, and from our own community leadership (past and present). All have agreed that we need a new system that is holistic in vision that truly reflects on the needs and priorities of our region. Like my dad would say at various past gatherings and assemblies “Let’s take action now and stop talking”. We all need to work together to ensure that we all work towards a healthier positive community, we are all in this together.
I understand that the federal government has expressed a commitment to develop Indigenous Health Legislation in order foster health systems that will respect and ensure safety and well-being of our Peoples. However, how long will this process take and whom will they actually be consulting? Our communities, at the grassroots, know what we need, if we are to develop a health care system that is truly holistic – you need to work directly with our communities. And fundamentally we cannot wait for legislation to start doing this important work, we need resources now! Attawapiskat and many other communities would greatly benefit from having long term and palliative care services, including mental health supports. We need those services on the ground and not wait for the occasional fly in visit from health providers. That is not good enough. We need to raise awareness!
I started my daily walks on April 10th and will continue until I see transformative changes and improvements. We can only do this if we work together, we know the problems, we see the problems, and each one of us possess certain tools that collectively can work towards a better future. Please feel free to join me walk. Also please free to share your story with me or post my page. Together we can make a change. We are stronger together.

Yours truly,
Sylvia Koostachin-Metatawabin