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Welcome

aniin     ᒥᔪᑌᐦ ᑲ ᐃᐧᓴᒥᐦᐟ ᐊᐄᐧᔭᐠ     pusu'l       Ɂedlanet’e     tānsi     way̓   

With the aim to improve accessibility and healthcare for Indigenous people, the Nurses Specialized in Wound, Ostomy and Continence Canada (NSWOCC) Indigenous Wound, Ostomy and Continence Health Core Program is excited to share a brand-new website dedicated to helping patients, NSWOCs, and other healthcare professionals access a directory of resources, education, training, and support related to Indigenous Wound, Ostomy and Continence Health.

As an ongoing project, we’re always looking to broaden our list of resources and links to share. If you have a great resource or tool that you think would be worth sharing with others, feel free to submit it to office@nswoc.ca in order for us to obtain permission to use it on the Sharing Circle website.

Territorial Land Acknowledgement

NSWOCC and the NSWOCC Indigenous Wound, Ostomy and Continence Health Core Program respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land. We have and will continue to honour the commitments to self-determination and sovereignty we have made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.

 

We acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and we fervently believe that the collaboration to improve health care for all contributes to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together.

News

The story behind our logo

Family

A Story of healing

By Thomas H. Anderson

INSWOCC Logo.png

There comes a time in one’s life where we face a sickness, be it minor or great. This is one of the times in life where family shines through.

 

In this piece, it was my mission to portray family in a way that has been understood by many cultures around the world. I brought this concept to the greatest scope that I can, and that is by bringing this thought of family to the universe itself. As we all live within this world as a collective whole, a family in its own right. It is important to remember the ties to the great celestial aspects, just as we remember family members. Each member plays a role in the family, and the universe is just the same. My Haudenosaunee heritage brought me a greater understanding of how family works, that not only this structure is how organisms live together but it goes farther beyond to a cosmic level.

 

The Sun, the Elder Brother or Great Warrior, to the Haudenosaunee people is the male aspect. It has earned the title of Great Warrior by how it conducts its daily duties without fail and that the men are to follow by its example. The Sun being an intense and powerful being is to embody the virtues of a great protector, as the men are the protectors of the family. The Sun works hand in hand with the land, our mother who rests on turtle island to nurture everything

that lives. The men are to provide to their families in the same manner, with the female aspect as an equal.

 

The Moon, our Grandmother, is the female aspect of our greater family. It embodies the soothing and graceful virtues that women carry within families. The Haudenosaunee compare the women to the Moon as they both have their cycles that represent the flow of life. Water is under great influence of the Moon, be it great or small, all water flows by how it moves. Women allow life to move in just the same way, as they are the givers of life. The women carry this great power and this power is closely related to the energy of creation.

The Great energy of creation, there is a word in our language that loosely translates into “The primordial energy that makes up everything”. That is the best way that I can bring the word into English. There is very little understanding at this time of how we truly understood it but its evidence can be seen all around us. This energy flows like air, water, and fire. The circle representation of the greater whole represents how this energy binds all things.

 

This energy binds us as an invisible force, as families are bound by an invisible force but it is well known as Love to us in this world. We are all bound together with this power and I want to bring this to the beginning knowing all that I understand.

 

Our own self, as an organism is a family in of itself. Our organs are all connected in the same way. They all perform their duties to keep the whole moving but there will be times where sickness will disrupt this flow. This is the time when love and care need to come to this area of sickness, the very things that bind everything together need to come and remind the organ of the flow and harmony. Love is the greatest medicine of all, and it can work in miraculous ways. Knowing all this, we can go even smaller down to the very cells and it will still show the same

relationship all the way down.

 

Remember all that is around you and what binds us all together as one, for we all are in this together. No matter what race, nationality, and even species. We must all keep love in our hearts for ourselves and each other. Love is the greatest force in the universe and so, it is the greatest medicine that it can offer. My best wishes to you and your families, as we are all one family.

Share a resource with us!

We're always looking to broaden our list of resources and links to share with other patients, their families, and healthcare professionals.

 

If you have a great resource or tool that you think would be worth sharing with others, feel free to share it with the Sharing Circle and we will make sure we get permission to use it.

Thanks for sharing with us!

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