Wawatay and NNEC launch new health project

Healthy cooking starts with healthy recipes. Healthy living starts with healthy eating.
And your health is not only important to you, but it’s also important to us at Wawatay Native Communications Society.
That’s why Wawatay has partnered with NNEC (Northern Nishnawbe Education Council) to launch the Misiwe Minoyawin (Health For Everyone) project.
Over the next 18 months the Misiwe Minoyawin project will address a holistic approach to healthy living by tackling the issues of physical activity, health eating, tobacco use, substance abuse and mental health.
The first step of the project is gathering your input to develop a healthy recipe cookbook, which will be distributed throughout First Nations in northern Ontario once it’s completed.
The recipe book will address healthy eating by promoting proper and culturally appropriate nutrition and healthy eating habits. We want you to submit your recipes to be included in this cookbook. The only guidelines are that all recipes include traditional foods and methods to prepare meals that are low in saturated fats and refined carbohydrates.
This cookbook will also create an awareness of unhealthy modern eating habits and bring about positive change in building healthy eating habits to lower the risk of diabetes, which is prevalent among First Nation people in northern Ontario.
Another aspect of this recipe book is the soliciting of the legends/stories behind the traditional foods in the submitted recipes; wild rice, berries and wild game for example. The Misiwe Minoyawin project hopes the inclusion of these legends and stories will instill cultural pride and a cultural connection with the recipes that will help promote a healthy well being.
This 18 month special project was made possible through funding provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health and the Healthy Communities Fund. Its goal is to demonstrate to Aboriginal youth in northern Ontario, especially the communities Wawatay serves in Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Treaty #3, how healthy lifestyle choices can boost overall well being.
Over the next 18 months, the Misiwe Minoyawin project will also deliver a youth generated advertising contest, videos and a role model campaign.
The advertising contest will focus on the issues of active lifestyle, healthy eating, tobacco use, substance abuse and mental health. The goal is to involve the youth in generating their very own advertising campaigns to raise awareness about each individual issue. The winning ads will be used in all of Wawatay’s media outlets.
In the coming weeks Wawatay Radio Network, Wawatay News and Wawatay News Online, SEVEN and Sagatay magazines will be featuring ads and information on how to submit your recipes, stories and ideas to get the healthy living recipe book off the ground and into the printing press. Also in the Sept. 30 edition of Wawatay News, we will be launching the logo for the Misiwe Minoyawin project.
I have been working on the editorial team at Wawatay News over the past year and a half in Sioux Lookout and recently from the Thunder Bay bureau. Over this time I’ve travelled all over northern Ontario visiting your communities and meeting the wonderful people there.
I feel very excited about launching a healthy living initiative that’s not only addressing the specific issues faced in many First Nation communities, but also by engaging the communities themselves so they can have hands on participation in the Misiwe Minoyawin Health For Everyone campaign.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, ideas and recipes please feel free to contact me at anytime:
Chris Kornacki
Misiwe Minoyawin
project co-ordinatorchrisk@wawatay.on.ca
807-344-3022
1-888-575-2349