Lakehead University has received a grant of 1.2 million dollars to study traditional methods of preventing cancer.
Dr. Lana Ray is working with the Kenora Area Health Access Center on the five-year research project.
She says the grant comes from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.
“One of the things that stood out for the proposal is the fact there are strong community partnerships,” says Ray.
“So I think having WNHAC as the partner organization, and there are able to demonstrate they are already doing a lot of this work but this is very much an expansion.”
Serena Joseph from WNHAC says the project will look at Indigenous health methods and look at how colonialism is affecting cancer among other things.
“Immediately (we) saw the alignment and opportunity to leverage and enhance what we’re already doing in terms of traditional medicine and connecting our families and loved ones to traditional practices for health and well-being and jumped at the opportunity.”
The project will also use medicine camps and traditional health practitioners to look at Indigenous ways of healing.
