Supporting One’s Journey into the Spirit World: a video series for caregivers 

September 24, 2025

An innovative, Partnership-supported project blends traditional wisdom with practical guidance

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (the Partnership) is proud to have collaborated on the “Supporting One’s Journey into the Spirit World” caregiver video series. Developed by the SE Health First Nations, Inuit and Métis Program, and Maamwesying North Shore Community Health Services, this Indigenous caregiver resource helps family and community members provide safe and comfortable care for loved ones at home.

The free, skills-based video library, available in Ojibway, English and French, offers practical guidance on a range of topics that reflects the reality of caregiving at home: from day-to-day tasks like providing nourishment and preventing falls to more specific skills such as changing a catheter and using a mechanical lift.

Two elderly First Nations women: the one on the left is feeding the one on the right with a spoon.
One of the videos from the caregiver series that demonstrates how you can help someone with eating and drinking. 

This 10-part video series blends practical instructions with traditional caregiving knowledge from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers like Elder Willard Pine of Garden River First Nation, a member of the Maamwesying Senior Patients Advisory Council. The inclusion of the Seven Grandfather Teachings and the sacred fire provides a foundation of cultural values that honour the experience and privilege of caring for one another. 

When you think about it, where do you go when you finish your journey? You go home, back into the earth. So, when you get sick, don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t be afraid to ask for help because we’re all out there for the same reason: to give that help, to give our hearts, our advice.

– Elder Willard Pine, Garden River First Nation

The Partnership thanks and congratulates the dedicated team members from Maamwesying North Shore Community Health Services and SE Health First Nations, Inuit and Métis Program for launching this timely and innovative resource. Through First Nations-, Inuit-, and Métis-led projects like these, we are actively working to build a cancer system that addresses Peoples-specific, self-determined solutions. It is a demonstration of our commitment to reconciliation and to closing the gaps in cancer care and outcomes between First Nations, Inuit and Métis and other people in Canada.

Watch the caregiver video series.