OGIMAAWABIITONG AND WAASEGIIZHIG NANAANDAWE’IYEWIGAMIG

February 11th, 2020
Kenora, ON
For immediate release

The first wave of vaccinations in elders buildings in Indigenous communities has now taken place in the Kenora Region.

In partnership with Kenora Chiefs Advisory and Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig, the vaccinations have been rolled out in Naotkamegwanning First Nation, Washagamis Bay First Nation and Iskatewizaagegan #39 Independent First Nation.

This roll out was a part of the government of Ontario’s initial roll out plan to vaccinate Long Term Care homes across the province, and the front-line health care workers who are staffed in those homes.

These vaccinations were taken to ceremony, as organized by community elders before the roll out to ensure respectful culture teachings and traditional protocols were followed.

We as organizations are beyond proud to see that these identified populations have been vaccinated.

We would like to emphasize with this roll out, this is just the beginning.

The amount of vaccines that were provided for this roll out was a limited number due to availability as per the provincial prioritization scale.

We continue to advocate at all level of governments, to ensure that all the Indigenous communities and populations we serve will receive the vaccine. We are fully prepared and expect once the wider spread vaccination plan is released from the province, we are in a spot to support and roll out vaccines in all communities.

The collaborative work between our organizations, and the Northwestern Health Unit was crucial in taking this first step with the priority population, and we will rely on these relationships going forward as we advocate for vaccine in Northwestern Ontario.

This was a historic moment in the Treaty #3 territory, and we are thankful we were able to work in collaboration with all our partners, the Ogichidaa, our leaderships, and multiple levels of government to make this happen.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Abbie Siroishka
Senior Executive Assistant and Communications Lead, Kenora Chiefs Advisory
807-407-4282
Abbie.siroishka@kenorachiefs.ca

Brianna Skead
Communications Coordinator, Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig
1-888-699-6422 ext. 236
Bskead@wnhac.org