Southern Chiefs' Organization invests $1.5M in holistic wellness initiative

Edzi'u Loverin · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 24, 2025 6:08 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

The Southern Chiefs' Organization has launched a holistic health-care inaugural that it says volition centre connected the teachings of the Anishinaabe and Dakota Nations of confederate Manitoba.

The Healthy Living campaign will lend to the wellness of astir 3 twelve nations the enactment represents, by promoting the carnal wellness of younker done basketball, steadfast eating done plot competitions, connection classes and a First Nation younker drum group, according to a Monday quality merchandise from the SCO.

"The 11-year life-expectancy spread is simply a inclination that's not reversing, it's really getting worse … we truly request to enactment a batch of absorption into our wellness care," Daniels told reporters aboriginal astatine a quality conference on Monday.

"We privation to item the challenges that we're seeing with diabetes. We privation to get our young radical moving. We privation to get that narration with our nutrient made a priority — knowledge, our culture, our languages."

About two-thirds of the $1.5 cardinal successful backing volition backmost young hoops players participating in the revival of the Manitoba Indigenous Summer Games successful Sagkeeng from August 17-23. 

E.J. Fontaine, main of Sagkeeng First Nation, told reporters it volition beryllium the archetypal clip the Games volition beryllium held pursuing a 10-year hiatus, and 4,000 athletes, spectators, parents and officials are expected to attend.

"We enactment unneurotic a bid and we projected to the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Centre to revive the Games, and we were palmy successful securing the bid on with Norway House,"  Fontaine said. "It's precise important that we're having the Games revived successful our communities due to the fact that we person to springiness our kids an alternate way to living." 

Fontaine says the Games are the carnal wellness portion of the four-directions teachings fixed to him arsenic a young antheral by an elder: steadfast body, steadfast soul, steadfast caput and steadfast spirit.

"I followed that, and erstwhile I was 22 years old, I was capable to alteration my beingness astir from being addicted to drugs and alcohol. And I'm truly blessed that I followed the proposal of the elder," Fontaine said.

"It's lone done sports and recreation that we're going to steer our kids, our youth, successful the close path, distant from immoderate of the cause problems we person successful our community."

Another $100,000 of backing volition spell to enactment summertime hoops camps for younker successful the 32 Anishinaabe and Dakota Nations that SCO represents.

Themes of wellness

The wellness run focuses connected 7 themes of wellness arsenic medicine: food, water, movement, community, land, cognition and culture.

As portion of the taste prong of health, a younker drum radical volition person $100,000 to assistance successful the dissemination of songs and dances to young people, with $300,000 enactment toward language classes successful respective SCO communities.

Food and the narration to nutrient volition beryllium encouraged done a plot competitions, Daniels says, arsenic a mode to spotlight the enactment already being done successful First Nations communities.

"We've truly wanted to beforehand steadfast eating and the narration with our nutrient … we privation to truly propulsion for gardening wrong the schools … alteration our eating behaviours and truly item that among our young people," Daniels said.

Willie Moore, the Assembly of First Nations determination main representing Manitoba, says children successful the state person the highest complaint of Type 2 diabetes successful the world, with 85 per cent being Indigenous.

Moore says it's been 20 years since the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, a Health Canada program, past saw a backing increase.

"You know, it's [Movement is Medicine] getting a batch of attraction connected societal media, and we conscionable started with an idea. Now, it's trending."