AADAC targeting tobacco abuse

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More than half of all Aboriginal people in Canada are smokers-62 per cent, in fact, according to recent statistics.

Compare that number to the 23 per cent of smokers in the non-Aboriginal population and you can see why tobacco secession groups are beginning to take a closer look at the materials they are using to encourage Aboriginal people to butt out.

A recent poster contest run by the Alberta Native Friendship Centre Association set out to counteract the lack of culturally appropriate messaging that is used to target the Aboriginal population.

"From my perspective, it's important to highlight both aspects of the use of tobacco," said Sarah Carmichael, the youth initiatives co-ordinator with the association. It's about respectful tobacco use versus tobacco abuse, she said. And so says the new poster that has been developed for distribution to Native organizations across the province.

Nathan Cardinal, a 20-year-old student at the Boyle Street Education Centre, submitted his artwork for the contest and a 13-member youth committee chose his message from the rest. He tells us to keep tobacco sacred, and the committee responded not only to the message, but to the artwork as well. He uses the eagle and pipe to drive his message home.

Cardinal wins $500 for his efforts, and his artwork will be seen in the halls of friendship centres and band council offices across Alberta. The second place prize of $250 went to Will McDonald, also of Edmonton, and third prize and $150 went to Nicole Harrison of the Athabasca Friendship Centre.

The poster contest was funded by an Aboriginal Tobacco Use Strategy grant from the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC), the organization mandated to lead and co-ordinate the Alberta tobacco reduction strategy, a very important part of which is the Aboriginal community, said AADAC spokesperson Lynn Groves Hautmann.

So in the fall of 2002, AADAC did consultations across the province and interviewed community members about tobacco use and their understanding of it. What came from those consultations was the Aboriginal Tobacco Use Strategy report, and from that report came an implementation strategy which began in 2003.

One of the recommendations from the community was that a guiding circle be formed to provide advice on implementing the strategy, so that's what AADAC did. Today the guiding circle is made up of four Elders from across the province, one youth member and representation from such groups as Nechi, the Metis Nation of Alberta and friendships centres.

It was also recommended that a serious effort of awareness raising had to begin to deal with the use/abuse concerns of tobacco in the Aboriginal community. In May of 2003 a call for grant proposals was sent out to help the community focus on issues of prevention and sacred tobacco use, and by July 2003, 25 proposals had been approved.

"Some were directed at youth, some were directed at the community in general, some were located in schools, and the guiding circle members sat on the review committee and approved them from the perspective of did this meet culture need of the Aboriginal community," said Groves Hautmann.

They were small grants, only $3,000, she said, but the results are expected to pack a punch.

"I'm very impressed with the calibre of work that has gone into the presentations and workshops. For $3,000 it's just unbelievable."

The initiative is over for last year, but AADAC is in the process of looking at final reports and assessing their impact, and deciding where the work to reduce recreational use of tobacco will go from here.

"That will be determined by the guiding circle. When we meet with them in the next few months, we'll be talking about the results of these 25 (proposals) and making a determination of what the next step should be," Groves Hautmann said.