Focus

Sacred smoke

Remembering traditional tobacco in smoking cessation and prevention

By Ylva Van Buuren

“If you and I were trading horses and blankets 200 years ago,” says Kathi Camilleri, a Cree/Métis woman who lives in the Kwakwakawak community of Campbell River, B.C., “we would summon a pipe carrier, fill a pipe with tobacco and light it. We would each take a bit of smoke into our mouths – but not into the lungs because our ancestors knew that would damage us. Then, to seal the trade, we would blow smoke, representing our commitment and word to the Creator.”

Camilleri’s story illustrates one of the traditional roles tobacco has played in First Nations communities in Canada. Unfortunately, much of its significance has been lost, along with so much else, over the last century. Today, community leaders and health advocates recommend re-instilling the importance of sacred tobacco to help First Nations people not only heal from their historical trauma, but also to help them quit smoking commercial tobacco.

Tobacco use among First Nations communities is alarmingly high – around 60 per cent. According to Caroline Lidstone-Jones, director of the Aboriginal Tobacco Strategy at Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto, among First Nations youth aged 15 to 17, 61 per cent of girls and 47 per cent of boys smoke, compared to 15 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, in the general population.

But although smoking tobacco may be widespread in First Nations communities, studies have shown that many First Nations people who smoke don’t know the difference between the cultural and non-cultural use of tobacco, says Daniel McKennitt, a medical student at the University of Alberta and founder of the Aboriginal Health Group in Edmonton, Alberta. “Some start smoking because they think it’s part of their culture,” says McKennitt, who was born in the Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation in Manitoba.

But it’s not. As told in creation stories, traditional tobacco was one of four burning-based medicines provided by the Creator. Burning tobacco was a way to feel connected to the Creator, says Camilleri, who is a mental health liaison worker in her community. “Tobacco was put on a sacred fire with a prayer and everyone would watch the prayer be taken in the smoke to the Creator.” Sacred tobacco was put on water in a prayer before a canoe journey. It was offered to the spirit of an animal who had been killed for food. It was carried in medicine bundles or given as a special gift.

This sacred component in First Nations cultures was never meant to be used in the form it is being used now, says Lidstone-Jones. “As a result, when we work with Aboriginal people, we try to de-normalize the use of commercial tobacco.”

Experts have determined that helping First Nations people address tobacco addiction should be culture-based and educational. Culture-based messages help support self-esteem, so clients become proud of who they are. Educating about the effects of smoking will help them make better choices, and this includes understanding advertising, says Peter Dinsdale, executive director of the National Association of Friendship Centres in Ottawa, with 114 centres in urban areas across Canada. From there, people can develop a plan for quitting.