Hi! My name is Katie and I just finished up my third year of study in cell biology. I am working this summer as a health and wellness intern for Dene Thá First Nation. However due to COVID-19 and the transition of the bulk of my work to online platforms, like Mary my Lands partner, I have ended up assisting both Dene Thá First Nation and Beaver First Nation with projects.
Since this is my first blog post of two, I will be focusing mostly on my thoughts and work completed earlier during the summer. In
my next blog post, I will shift the discussion to more recent work and the transition back to school.
I applied to be a health and wellness intern with Engage North back in February of 2020. Although in school, we have learned about wellness from a theoretical perspective, I have had few opportunities to apply what I know to practice. In addition, I wanted to learn more about indigenous health as it is a seldom taught, but significant, subject in school.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the in-person training with the other three interns took place online. Although I missed having face-to-face interactions, by the end of the four week training period I felt as if I had known all the interns for months. Completing the Indigenous Canada MOOC was definitely a highlight of training for me. As someone who does not have a formal background in indigenous studies, it was fascinating to learn about Canada’s rich history that extends far beyond the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Through the course, I realized I still have a lot to learn and need to actively address my ignorance. As a result, this summer I have made an effort to read more indigenous literature. I have just finished reading “From the Ashes” by Jesse Thistle and am looking forward to reading “Moon of the Crusted Snow” by Catharine Coldiron next.
While the focus of May was on training and meeting with previous interns, June was when we really started hitting the ground with working with the nations. In June I worked with Jenna, the health and wellness intern for Beaver First Nation, on compiling a log of local mental and maternal health resources for Beaver First Nation. Through this process, I realized that there is still a lot to be done in terms of increasing accessibility of health support to the North. In addition, Jenna and I brainstormed virtual camp and youth programming ideas.
In my next blog post I’ll be talking about how working remotely has changed after Jenna and Stennette were able to travel up to Beaver First Nation.
Until next time,
Katie
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