Circle for Liver Wellness Solutions
Circle for Liver Wellness Solutions (CLWS) is an Indigenous-led community, creatively connecting to implement solutions in alignment with the Ontario Hepatitis C Elimination Roadmap (endhepc.ca).
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The Circle Partners
M'Chigeeng First Nation
M'Chigeeng First Nation is an Ojibwe First Nation and the second largest First Nation on Manitoulin Island, settled in the middle of the 19th century when many Anishinabek from the north shore area relocated here. The Registered Population of M’Chigeeng First Nation is 2,543. M’Chigeeng Health Services work collectively to strengthen emotional, spiritual, mental and physical well-being.
Sagamok First Nation
Sagamok First Nation is an Ojibwe Nation whose name means ‘Two Points Joining’ and is located on the north shore of Lake Huron. Community members number well over 2000. Services seek to increase hope, purpose, belonging and connection.
Sioux Lookout First Nation
Sioux Lookout First Nation Health Authority services 33 First Nation communities and is mandated by and dedicated to strengthening First Nation in the region by contributing in unique ways to a strong health system. Vision is resilient and healthy Nations supported on their path to wellness.
Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig
Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig fosters healthy Anishinaabeg families and communities through traditional and contemporary health care encompassing mind, body, heart and spirit in the Kenora area.
Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy
Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy is a provincial non-profit organization specializing in Harm Reduction, Education, Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and other STBBI; providing culturally respectful and sensitive programs and strategies to respond to the growing needs among Indigenous Peoples in Ontario.
Indigenous Primary Health Care Council
Indigenous Primary Health Care Council supports the advancement and evolution of Indigenous primary health care services provision and planning throughout Ontario.
Call Auntie
Call Auntie is as an Indigenous-led interprofessional healthcare team in Toronto with a vision to strengthen the wellbeing of the urban Indigenous community, celebrating Two-Spirit, non-binary, trans, and Afro-Indigenous relatives by working with community members and partners to facilitate low barrier, wrap around care, with a strong commitment to sexual and reproductive health justice and cultural safety.
2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations
2 Spirited People of the 1st Nations has a vision to nurture and grow within our sacred roles and celebrate our strengths as 2-Spirit peoples to provide physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual advocacy. We support 2-Spirit peoples and First Nations, Métis, and Inuit community members who are at risk of or living with HIV, hepatitis C, and related co-infections; and we will continue to support community members who are facing the effects of historic and ongoing colonial violence so that we may thrive within our communities and nations.
Elevate NWO
Elevate NWO is a community-based, not-for-profit organization providing services, opportunities and programs to improve the lives of and empower people living with, affected by, or at risk of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C in Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario. With an emphasis on harm reduction and innovative practices, we are changing people's lives across our region.
Pauktuutit
Pauktuutit is the national non-profit organization representing all Inuit women in Canada. Its mandate is to foster a greater awareness of the needs of Inuit women, and to encourage their participation in community, regional and national concerns in relation to social, cultural and economic development.
Ontario Native Women’s Association
Ontario Native Women’s Association is a non-profit organization that celebrates and honours the safety and healing of Indigenous women and girls as they take up their leadership roles in the family, community and internationally for generations to come.
Réseau ACCESS Network
Reseau Access Network is a non-profit, community-based charitable organization committed to promoting wellness, harm and risk reduction and education. Supporting individuals, and serving the whole community in a comprehensive, holistic approach to HIV/AIDS, HepC, Harm Reduction and related health issues.
Wikwemikong Health Centre
Wikwemikong Health Centre focuses on wholistic community well-being through traditional and western health services. They deliver activities and services that promote healthy lifestyle choices using a population health approach that refers to the health of the entire community.
Meet Circle Members
Kate Dunn
Aanii from Mississauga First Nation and the northern shores of Lake Huron where Kate combines a passion for supporting wellness and liver health with a love of being out on the land. Kate’s background is in nursing and public health and currently works in the school of nursing at York University while engaging in numerous community engaged research projects with the aim of disrupting barriers while increasing access and equity wellness supports.
Donald Corbiere RN (he, him, his)
Community Health Nurse
Naandwechige Gamig Wikwemikong Health Centre
Business Phone: 705-859-3164 ext. 315
Aanii, Wachaya, Donald(Dondi) Corbiere Ndishnecause, Community Health Nurse, Wikwemikong.
Happy to be a part of a team driving forward critical preventative health, health promotion, and person/community centered Wellness and Mino Bimaadiziwin. This includes import work with routine immunizations, well person, well baby, aging well, and communicable disease work. Just one member of an incredible team of staff working alongside the persons and community of Wiikwemkoong on Gchi Gemnidoo Mnissing.
Cuzzin Weeumch, saw a Shaman in Mongolia, made the offering of 80 proof alcohol to Her. She went on her spiritual journey, and came back to tell him that “our Great Mother was hurting…’’, “we need to go back to our homelands and make offerings and be with her….”. Her vision has stuck with me, and the planets aligned for my small family to come back to Waboose Mnissing, and be on the land, and with family.
Was a refreshing change after spending 16 or so years in various roles within the City Of Toronto, including, Communicable Disease Investigator, Social Determinates of Health Nurse, and most recently, Consultant Indigenous Affairs. These many years of being an advocate and voice for persons needing connections, taught me many lessons, which I am happy to bring back home.
“If you live for today…tomorrow will take care of itself…If you live for today…the Past will not torture you….”Ghandi
Jaden Hudyma, Coordinator – Harm Reduction
Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority
I grew up in a small town in Northeastern Ontario called Mattawa, but my Indigenous Roots are from Pikwakanagan First Nation (Golden Lake First Nation). I am fairly new to working in the public health space, but my Western education is in Physical and Health Education, Health Promotion, Occupational Health and Safety and Public Health.
I have been given the incredible opportunity to work as the Coordinator on the Harm Reduction Team at SLFNHA to increase access to Sexually Transmitted and Blood Borne Infection (STBBI) testing, awareness and education through Dried Blood Spot Testing (DBST) and community connection.
On a personal level, the last several years have been a meaningful journey of reconnecting with my Anishinaabe Algonquin roots — a part of my identity I wasn’t able to fully explore growing up. Like many others with mixed ancestry, I grew up at a distance from my culture, unsure of how to navigate that space or claim it as my own. As an adult, I’ve taken intentional steps to reclaim that connection through community, ceremony, and teachings from Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
This reconnection has not only shaped who I am, but it’s also fundamentally transformed how I approach my work. It reminds me that liver wellness, and wellness more broadly, cannot be separated from culture, belonging, and the broader histories that shape our health. I carry this understanding with me in all that I do.
Jaden Hudyma
Coordinator - Harm Reduction
Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority