Top News - July/August - 2004
Laurentian University honours popular playwright
Young and old learn to prevent sudden baby death
Women share ideas and business success
This is only a partial listing of the stories featured in the July/August 2004 issue of Birchbark. If you are not receiving your own copy of Birchbark, then you have missed out on a lot.Click here for Birchbark subscription information.
Laurentian University honours popular playwright
Birchbark Staff, Sudbury
Laurentian University awarded an honourary Doctor of Letters degree to playwright Tomson Highway on June 4. Highway had already obtained bachelor degrees in music and English at the University of Western Ontario and formerly was employed in social work.
In recent years, Highway has attracted wide acclaim for his work in theatre and for his plays and books. He lives part of the year in Greater Sudbury. His birthplace is Thompson, Man.
Highway's recent novel The Kiss of the Fur Queen is considered a popular and critical success. He has also published two volumes of a trilogy of children's books written in English and Cree.
Notable past achievements in a distinguished career include being named the Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto for two years and being appointed artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts Inc. in Toronto. Highway also was the first Aboriginal writer to be inducted into the Order of Canada. That honour was bestowed in 1994.
It is probably Highway's plays that have brought him the most attention, though. The Rez Sisters, a play that was situated on Manitoulin Island, won A Dora Mavor Moore Award, was Canada's entry at the Edinburg International Festival, and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award.
His next play, Dry Lips Outta Move to Kapuskasing, won four Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for Outstanding Canadian Play.
Young and old learn to prevent sudden baby death
Joan Taillon , Birchbark Writer , Toronto
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is not a topic a lot of people want to talk about, SAID Mary MacCormick who heads up a unique public education program aimed at preventing the tragedy. She has just finished training 10 facilitators at the Niagara Regional Native Centre to help spread the word about preventing SIDS.
When a baby dies, sometimes parents blame themselves and turn their grief inwards, or blame someone else in their family, but unfortunately that does nothing to prevent the next infant death.
MacCormick, who works for SIDS Canada, said SIDS claims two babies a week in Canada, and the main causes are believed to be "sleeping the baby on its tummy, over-heating and smoking."
Babies of teenage mothers also are more at risk.
On top of that, Aboriginal people have been found to have at least a five per cent greater risk of losing a child to SIDS, and that is why MacCormick says she is putting a push on getting as many young Aboriginal facilitators trained as possible in the STEPS program she runs, so they can share their knowledge about SIDS prevention in their own communities.
STEPS is an acronym for the four-hour Special Teen Education Program that was introduced in Ontario in 2001.
It covers the risk factors for SIDS and what parents can do to minimize that risk. Currently there is no definitive cause and no measure that will prevent all SIDS deaths.
The STEPS program was launched in Thunder Bay in September 2003 where, despite putting out more than 200 invitations to various kinds of organizations, "we had very little response. But we had five workers come out from a Native group there, and they have been fabulous," said MacCormick.
She is referring to Beenidigen, an organization that provides support to families that have lost babies and trains expectant mothers in how to reduce the risk of SIDS.
Beenidigen also runs a healthy baby and child program and a parenting group. As a result of MacCormick's contact with this group, 22 facilitators were trained in the Thunder Bay region to pass on the STEPS program to others.
One of the Beenidigen group took a particular interest in the STEPS training because "they had lost two or three babies in the last year in cradleboards," said MacCormick. "So they really wanted to look at whether or not they could help these families more.
"One of the girls brought in a cradleboard and we went over it and tried to develop a safer way (to use it). The baby can still sleep in the cradleboard, of course, but just to lower the strapping so the chest can move better and there is better air flow and that kind of thing. So we're actually working together to try to develop and keep the ethnic and heritage background without changing it too dramatically."
MacCormick said she does a personal follow-up with those she trains, and sometimes she goes with them to help them make their first presentation in their own communities.
She pointed out that not everyone who takes her training will do formal presentations of what they learn, "but they may tell five of their friends" what they know about preventing SIDS.
MacCormick, whose own 17-year-old daughter lost a baby to SIDS some years ago (her first grandchild) has made SIDS her special cause.
The original plan was just to train pregnant teens, said MacCormick, but she said they quickly learned that they had to work with communities and agencies as well. "Because teens go home and grandma may not know about 'back to sleep.'" She explained it is safer to put babies to sleep on their backs.
"So we need to train the grandmothers as much as we do the teenagers, because if a teen goes home and she puts the baby on its back and mom says 'What are you doing? I had six kids and they all slept on their tummies,' and flips the baby over . . . We have to train everyone if we want to see this program successful."
She shared some facts about SIDS with Birchbark.
Babies who are put to sleep lying on their stomach are twice as likely to die of SIDS as babies put to sleep lying on their back. If, in addition to sleeping on its stomach, the baby has a teenage mother it has a five times higher risk again, according to MacCormick. And if the child is Aboriginal, "you add another five times. So if it's a teen mother and Aboriginal and the baby is sleeping on its tummy, you have about a 17 times greater risk of dying of SIDS. And if you add smoking into it, it brings it up again. And, of course, a lot of teens smoke."
Smoking during pregnancy, or around a young child-even outdoors-increases the risk even more, and the risk increases as the number of cigarettes smoked increases.
MacCormick said her own daughter was living at home when she lost her son "and we thought we were doing everything right." But she said women in their 40s and 50s, such as herself, who "had their children 20 years ago" won't know that a baby should sleep on its back. Before about 1990, mothers were told to sleep a baby on its side or on its stomach.
"Side sleep we discourage, because on the side it can actually topple onto their tummy, especially if the baby is a back sleeper. And say they go to the babysitters and the babysitter puts the baby on its side, and that baby moves around during sleep and topples onto its tummy, it now has a 20 times greater risk of dying of SIDS."
That's because the sleep position is an unaccustomed one, MacCormick explained. "And that's where we're finding that babies are dying quite frequently on the very first time they're placed on their tummy. They're just not accustomed to it."
MacCormick admitted the problem with risk reduction is that sleeping on the tummy, overheating and smoking are only risk factors.
"We probably don't know all the risk factors, because some babies will die on their back, in a smoke-free environment, where you think that everything was done just perfect... But we are reducing the risk, and if we can even save one baby it's worth it.
Mary MacCormick said other risk factors are using a comforter instead of a blanket to cover a baby, as it may slip over the baby's head. She recommends comforters be used only for children age two and over. Another hazard is putting bumper pads in a baby's crib. MacCormick attributes the greater risk SIDS poses to Aboriginal babies relates to poverty on reserves and lack of a safe sleep environment. "Many of them are co-sleeping, and sometimes there's several children in bed with mom and dad, and it's dangerous. The overheating risk factor, the nutritional (inadequacy) and sometimes they don't go for their prenatal visit right away."
She knows a lot of communities are a long way from adequate prenatal care and isolation makes it hard to help mothers who lose their children to SIDS too. In some places, "we do peer support online, because there's no group there. That's why we started the discussion forums and the online chats. We hold those twice a month and we provide support to families that have lost a child to SIDS who may not be in an area where there's a chapter or a support group."
MacCormick also pointed out that even where there is a support group, the bereaved parents need to be close in age to get the most benefit from attending. "That's why it is so important to develop something for teens ... we go from 25 under.
"I have been pleasantly shocked to see how much support we're getting from the Aboriginal community... Every time we go out and do a STEPS program there are at least two Aboriginal workers in the audience."
For more information about SIDS or the STEPS program, go online at www.sidscanada.org or email Mary MacCormick at mmaccormick@cogego.ca.
Top
Women share ideas and business successKathleen Orth, Birchbark Writer, Niagara Falls
Delegates to the second annual Aboriginal Women in Business Conference showed they are as interested in community building as they are in building successful businesses.
"Have the zeal of a missionary," said speaker Vicki Antone, who talked about her community development experience. "It's love that keeps us going. I love my community and I love to help other people."
Organized by Milestone, an event-planning company based in Ohsweken, the June 16 to 18 conference offered workshops about creative thinking and networking skills, information on government programs and inspiring personal stories and advice.
Cathy Morningstar Flynn had the opening spot on the agenda.
In the employment market, she said, "We are playing their game. This game is new to the Aboriginal community." Flynn, an Ojibway from Mississauga First Nation who leads a self-employment training workshop in Toronto, said Aboriginal women's "common shared history is empowering."
Success for Aboriginal women in business, she said, depends on doing something you love.
"In taking risks," she added, "there is anxiety but there is also excitement."
Renae Hill (Oneida of the Thames), Heather Garlow (Onandaga, Six Nations), Cindy Lapp, and Frances Cordero de Bolanos, provided information on government programs such as Aboriginal Business Canada and the Canadian Heritage Aboriginal Women's Program.
To interest lenders in funding your business, "you have to prove everything on a piece of paper," said Hill, who works with the Southern Access Centre for Native Business.
Frances Beauvais "works closely with national Aboriginal organizations" she said, and her priority is "getting remote Aboriginal communities connected."
Beauvais believes it is better for Aboriginal on-reserve communities if business owners keep the heart of their enterprise on their reserves.
The Aboriginal Canada Portal Web site, according to Beauvais, helps them do that by increasing awareness of Canada's Aboriginal population and the products and services they have to offer.
A job centre is now a part of the Web site, because, said Beauvais, "the number one question is employment."
Delegates enjoyed a fashion show organized by Donna Bomberry, who shared her experience in direct marketing of a clothing line. Direct marketing "is not for everyone," she admitted, but "it's well worth looking into."
Web site designer Deanna Dunham said a young entrepreneur may have difficulty being taken seriously, but her company now serves 54 clients and has five employees.
"Conferences like this are fantastic for us," said Dunham.
Sherry Moreau (Anishinabe) led a business ideas workshop, and Joanne Absolom (Ojibway, Marten Clan) had everyone laughing with a "musical chairs" networking exercise.
Absolom (whose Ojibway name means "Woman Who Walks Leaving Footprints") said, "Get outside of your comfort zone. It's amazing what you can do when you do that."
It was pointed out that entrepreneurs don't have to do it alone.
"Mentoring," said Ann Cooney (Mohawk, Turtle Clan), provides "relationships, knowledge and wisdom."
Brenda Nadjiwan (Chippewas of Nawash) manages the Aboriginal Workforce Participation Initiative.
This program aims to link Aboriginal job seekers with business and industry, and to raise awareness of Aboriginal issues in the workplace, so that Aboriginal people will be more likely to stay with a company that hires them.
Nadjiwan spoke about employment barriers, such as employers not having "demographic knowledge" about the Aboriginal people they hire.
Also, she said, "Aboriginals don't do well in interviews. Aboriginals don't talk about themselves. Humility is one of our seven teachings."
But, Nadjiwan added, "Someone has to do the listening-we listen well. It comes from an oral tradition."
She explained how the vision statements of modern corporations are syncronized with Aboriginal values.
"Aboriginals," she said, "have always understood the value of vision, as future memory. We have the community and spirit where the corporations are striving to be."
Right now, she's working with employers in Timmins and Wawa who are losing young employees who go seeking better opportunities in the large cities. They believe the trend would be reversed if the jobs were there for them at home.
"Aboriginal young people want to stay in the North," she said, "and can provide the workforce.
"What the world needs is an injection of spirit," Nadjiwan concluded. "The spirit is ours to share."
Rikki Hill delivered the opening prayers each day and The Lost Dancers from Six Nations
performed Thursday evening.
Barbara Helen Hill was master of ceremonies. She told delegates "Operating from the love is what will keep our communities going... Everyone here has talked about sharing within your community."
Plans are already underway for the 2005 conference.
