First Nations upset with late invite to H1N1 conference

Swine flu hit First Nations in Manitoba especially hard in the spring and leaders are upset they weren't initially invited to an international conference in Winnipeg this week.

"We gotta be sitting at those tables, not being excluded. Decisions are being made behind closed doors, without First Nations input," said David Harper, chief of the Garden Hill First Nation, one of the Manitoba communities that struggled with swine flu, also known as the H1N1 influenza A virus.

Medical experts from across Canada and around the world are gathering in Winnipeg on Wednesday and Thursday for a conference on preparation for the resurgence of H1N1 in the fall.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the pandemic conference is the first of its kind. She said delegates will review possible outcomes of the epidemic, and develop standardized guidelines for medical personnel in rural communities and hospital intensive care units.

A number of First Nations leaders are attending, from both the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and Assembly of First Nations, but only after a last-minute invitation was extended.

Canada's chief public health officer David Butler-Jones said the conference will play a key role in determining many of Canada's H1N1 guidelines for the fall flu season.

"The conference will bring together information from around the world and our experience in Canada to guide a whole range of things: everything from what's the most effective treatments of this [to] what have we learned for who is greatest at risk for this?" he said.

Traditional aboriginal healers like Derek Woods, from Dakota Tipi First Nation, want to share their knowledge of natural flu medicines and say it should be part of the solution.

Woods said yarrow combined with other herbs and plants and made into tea helps fight flu symptoms like fevers and headaches.

"It's there, and it comes from the Creator, and he always puts that medicine there. Everything is here to heal us," he said.

"Doctors, they help the body get better, which brings the spirit back. It works both ways. I welcome Western medicine. It does work. I've seen people get better that way. And I've seen people get better this way."

Team effort

First Nations leaders say fighting the H1N1 virus has to be a team effort.

"The information that we gather [at the conference], I think, will help our traditional healers. We can pass on that information and see perhaps how we can work together in seeking the kind of remedy we're looking for at this time," said Ron Evans, head of the AMC.

Grand Chief Sydney Garrioch of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), an organization representing most First Nations communities in northern Manitoba, said he's disappointed by the lack of information flowing to First Nations around pandemic planning.

He said as far as he knows, there are no concrete plans for how vaccines will be administered in northern aboriginal communities.

"There is no partnership [with the federal government]. There is no development of the organized system that everyone is part of," he said, noting that only two of 30 communities in his northern territory have a plan for dealing with the swine flu pandemic.

"So we still feel outside. We feel that we are excluded from that system."

Public health officials say an H1N1 vaccine will be available by mid-November and they're confident that will be enough time to protect every Canadian who wants it.

Until then, Woods said he'll be sure to have enough of his traditional remedy for everyone in his community.