PSE students, Innu community teach one another about medicine

Grade 6 to 12 students in the Innu community and postsecondary students from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Dalhousie University, and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine took part in a program that encouraged the two groups to teach one another about medicine. Titled Seeing Beyond Good Medicines, the program saw postsecondary students deliver health care profession simulations to the students from the Innu communities, while Innu elders, healers, and youth shared their knowledge of healing practices with the undergraduate students. “The medical students were able to meet and ask elders questions about Innu medicine,” said Kanani Davis, an educator and Innu consultant with the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation Health Department. Davis also noted the benefits of Innu youth having the opportunity to try out different health professions: “they need to see themselves in this field and there’s no better way to do this than to experience it first-hand.” MUN