Conference to feature Indigenous viewpoint

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For five days in July people from around the planet will converge on Edmonton to share their knowledge about and experiences with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Working Together to Keep Our Dream Alive is the theme of the 8th SIDS International Conference, taking place July 2 to 6 at the Shaw Conference Centre and marking only the second time the conference has been held in Canada. The first SIDS International Conference was held in Toronto in 1974.

A diverse group of people is expected to attend, to look at SIDS from the viewpoints of scientists, health care professionals and of the parents who have lost children to SIDS. For the first time, an Indigenous viewpoint will also be reflected, through a program designed by and for Indigenous people.

The Indigenous program will be divided into four streams. The first, Traditional Health for Grief and Loss, will look at healing and health from an Indigenous perspective, including the use of medicines, ceremonies, songs and teachings. The second stream will look at traditional teachings and the practices in parenting and infant health. Tobacco... The Traditional Path, will look at the link between smoking and SIDS. The fourth stream, Research, Education and Awareness on SIDS in

Indigenous Communities, will look at the prevalence of SIDS in Indigenous communities around the world and culturally appropriate ways to address it.

Ruth Morin, chief executive officer of the Nechi Training, Research and Health Promotions Institute, is chair of the conference's Indigenous program. She said it's important to have the Indigenous perspective included in the program because of the prevalence of SIDS within Aboriginal populations.

"Because the rate of Aboriginal babies dying from SIDS is greater than that of the larger Canadian society ... the stats that I've heard here are anywhere between six and eight times greater than the larger Canadian society, " Morin said.

"There will be a focus on Indigenous information. We're hoping that it will stimulate wide interest and awareness in all participants attending this conference through the presence and participation of Elders. They'll be sharing some of their teachings. They'll be doing presentations and workshops on traditional Indigenous cultural and spiritual healing practices. There will be singing, there will be storytelling, there will be an Elders' room which will be open throughout the entire conference where people can go any time to spend time with the Elders and take part in whatever they are doing in their specific room."

The conference is hosted by the Canadian Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths, a non-profit organization that has been working since 1973 to provide support to families affected by SIDS and to work toward solving the mystery of SIDS through research and education.

Debra Keays-White is the chair of the 2004 SIDS International Conference. She is a past-president of the foundation and is currently regional director of Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch in Atlantic Canada.

She said trying to reach out to Aboriginal people has been a goal of the foundation for the past six years or so, since it first became evident that SIDS is a much greater problem within the Aboriginal population. At that time, she said, very little research was being done on SIDS in Canada, but what was being done showed that a disproportionate number of the infants dying from SIDS were Aboriginal.

"The numbers we were hearing back then were anywhere from three to 10 times higher in the Aboriginal populations of Canada than in the general population, which of course stunned us. And we looked around at our organization and said, 'You know, what are we doing about this and what should we be doing about it?'"

In an attempt to better reach out to Aboriginal people, the foundation redesigned its educational materials to make them more culturally sensitive and relevant. They also dcided to include a special focus on Aboriginal people within the international conference.

"There's two to three deaths per week of SIDS in Canada. I believe it's still the number one killer of children under the age of one. And we are only tiny steps closer to solving the mystery."

For more information about the 2004 SIDS International Conference, go to the conference Web site at www.meet-ics.com/sids, or call 1-604-681-2153.