Former Fort McPherson chief Wanda Pascal joined Indigenous Elders and project leads from across the world this week at a workshop in Switzerland on traditional medicines and healing.
Julia Poissant, a member of the organization leading the workshop, described it as a writing retreat to draft a resource document on Indigenous concepts of health “as expressed through traditional medicines, relationships with biodiversity, territorial stewardship and Indigenous governance.”
The workshop took place on July 13 and 14 in Geneva.
While not connected to a United Nations forum on Indigenous rights taking place in Switzerland at the same time, Poissant said the Geneva workshop – by the Ărramăt Project – will feed into the UN forum’s expert panel on One Health, the World Health Organization’s global health approach.
Pascal, an Elder advisor for the Ărramăt Project, said she learned about traditional medicines from her grandmother, mother and past Elders.
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“I always say we don’t only learn from our own family, we learn as we go every day in life. We learn from other people too, not only from family,” Pascal said.
When she was 10 years old, she remembers listening to her grandparents tell stories, some of which she now sees unfolding.
“Everything they talked about the future is happening now because everything is getting harder, especially with the medicine part, like the health system,” said Pascal. “I feel it’s really failing and not really good.”
Pascal opens every presentation with the story of how she witnessed traditional medicine help her granddaughter, Jenelle, after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2023.
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The two often prepare spruce gum ointment together.
“I really enjoy making the medicine and just giving it out to people. It’s free from the land, so I like sharing it and it’s better than buying a jar or a bottle of cough syrup for cold or pain or whatever,” said Pascal.
Pascal is no stranger to advocating on international stages. In 2022, she travelled to Washington, DC to fight for protections for the Porcupine caribou in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
While the tight time restrictions during these speaking opportunities were a challenge at first, Pascal said she has become used to having three to five minutes to speak.
“I speak about how the medicine helps us, how it was in the past, and how it is now. I really think people should go back to the land and start using medicine again,” said Pascal.
Joining Pascal at the workshop, Poissant said, was Yukon Soaps Company owner Joella Hogan, assistant professor at the Indian Social Institute Vincent Ekka, executive director of the Grace Trifam Ministry Fiji Safaira Vere Tagivuni, Tuareg researcher and Tamasheq language specialist Ibrahim Ag Abdourahmane, and co-chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Rodrigo Paillalef.
