Angela Nahwegahbow is a social worker at Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre, but on Friday, World Diabetes Day, she was a chef extraordinaire.

Nahwegahbow prepared a variety of foods, many grain and plant based, that help people with diabetes better control blood sugars and improve general health.

Health Sciences North and Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre have launched a new collaboration, Mshkikii Gamik (which means where the medicines are in Anishinaabe), aimed at improving culturally safe and secure health care for indigenous patients.

“(There has been) a gap in cultural services and practices, whether it’s for birthing ceremonies or our journey home,” said Angela Recollet, executive director at Shkagamik-Kwe Health Centre, on Tuesday. “Going home means passing, so it’s about being able to have a safe space to conduct those ceremonies. But it’s more than that – it ensures that we have access to quality services for disease control and that people from our communities have access to everyday health services, which is far more challenging when you’re coming from remote communities.”

Aboriginal people in the Far North are looking for the same benefits from mining in the Ring of Fire that Sudburians have always sought from mining in the Nickel City, says Bob Rae.

The former Ontario New Democrat premier, who is representing the Matawa Chiefs Council in negotiations with the province on revenue-sharing in the Ring, said that situation is no different than Sudbury’s.