Traditional medicine used to enhance health care in northeastern Ontario

In a small room at the Noojmowin Teg Health Centre, there are boxes of roots, leaves, and branches being prepared and stored.

The health centre, located in Little Current, Ont., is home to a doctor, nurse practitioners and dietitians. Traditional healer Kenn Pitawanakwat also works there to incorporate traditional practices in healing.

"A lot of people don't want to be taking Western medicine pills," he said. "So they come over here."

Pitawanakwat says the plants are intended to help people suffering from a disease or health problem. For example, he says blueberry plants can help those with problematic sugar levels.

"[Blueberry] leaves for a diabetic will help bring down your sugar levels," he said. "It will not cure diabetes."

Pitawanakwat stresses he doesn't write prescriptions for people who come to him for advice.

"It's a recommendation," he explained. "We suggest what you take."

The healing power of herbs and plants from traditional healer Kenn Pitawanakwat

5 years ago

Duration 1:44

Kenn explains some of the uses of the sacred herbs he has stored at the Noojmowin Teg Health Centre on Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation on Manitoulin Island.

He says it was his grandmother who first started teaching him about traditional healing. Later in life, he continued to learn more from an elder at a local medicine lodge.

"Three years I was there," he said. "But for 12 years, we crawled around in the swamps, bogs and fed the mosquitoes and blackflies. There's nothing glamorous about this work."

He says herb books can be helpful, but suggests speaking with someone before using plants to heal.

"Don't go self-medicating yourself or others unless you've spent 12 years with an individual who knows what they're doing," he said.