Date Published | Dec. 20, 2007

BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN

The way Ian Peltier sees it, 60 years of life experience is worth just as much or more than a PhD, which takes only eight years to complete.
Peltier, the acting director of aboriginal affairs at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, has written a handbook outlining how to work with aboriginal elders as advisors and teachers within the medical school.

“We’re trying to educate staff, students and faculty on how important it is to have elders here,” he said.

Each member of the medical school’s faculty and staff has been given a copy of the handbook, which was released last month.

The handbook was written after consultations with Northern Ontario elders in February 2007 at Trent University’s Elders Gathering in Peterborough, Ontario.

A subsequent day-long workshop was held with elders in March 2007 in Thunder Bay. The project was funded by Health Canada’s Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative.

The handbook defines an elder as someone who has travelled full circle in his or her life - from an infant to a grandparent.

Respect, knowledge, spiritual grounding, compassion, wisdom, honesty and patience are pointed out as common personal characteristics of aboriginal elders.

In the old days, elders had a variety of knowledge about the many things they needed to survive off the land, said Peltier. These days, their knowledge is more specialized.
“It just makes sense with the way society is now. It’s just impossible for someone to acquire that same kind of skill set as in the old days.”

The handbook contains a long list of ways elders are currently active in the medical school and could be active in the future.

Elders are currently part of the monthly Senior Leadership Group of the medical school, although they do not have any formal decision making authority.

They also participate in quarterly meetings of the school’s Aboriginal Reference Group, which provides advice on the promotion of higher learning and accommodation of the aboriginal worldview.

Elders also participate in interviewing potential medical students and in developing curriculum for the school.

They spend one week each month on campus, and do guest speaking, student counselling, aboriginal teachings, traditional sweat lodges, team building and informal support and guidance to senior leadership.

The handbook contains policies about how to pay elders for their services. When a request is made to an elder for a service, they are supposed to be presented with a gift at the first opportunity. The gift may be money or a traditional gift like tobacco, household items or foodstuffs.

Peltier said he’s trying to create a program where an elder is always on campus as part of the medical school’s faculty.

“It’s going to be an elder in residence program. That’s what we’re moving towards,” he said.

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