A two-day diabetes conference was held at the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory Community Hall on September 28 & 29, 1998. Suzanne Brant spoke on the aspects of natural medicine as opposed to the western concept of healing. “Plants are balanced and used as a healing agent. They know where to go in the body,” said Brant. “The plants build and feed different cells in the body. Many plants are edible and are used as food and as healing agents,” Brant added.

Suzanne Brant

Brant says she’s been learning about the area of natural medicine for about ten years. She says she always knew plants were medicinal and used medicines to heal herself when she became ill. Now she says she feels the need to share the knowledge of herbs and plants and what their different uses are.

According to Brant, colonization and the industrial revolution in North America played a big part in Native people forgetting to use the plants. This created low self esteem for native people which created a memory blank on using the plants and herbs. “Only a few of our elders and medicine people retained that knowledge of treating what was said was sleeping sickness (diabetes),” said Brant.

“The creation of diabetes for Aboriginal people was a direct link to the dioxins which came from milk which also could be attributed to the industrial revolution,” said Brant.

She added the conference was “good” in that it provided support for everyone that participated in the conference and the event was beneficial in the area of prevention and treatment.