Like mineral prospecting, bioprospecting springs forth hope of finding new medical discoveries from natural sources like plants.
But relationships with First Nations people and respect for their traditions need to be fostered and maintained before any new discoveries will surface, according to Dr. Greg Ross, dean of the research department at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM).
Taxol is an aggressive anti-cancer fighting agent found in the Canadian yew plant and is the North’s most recent contribution to the medical world. Examining more properties from plants or fungi may lead to new treatments for long-term illnesses.
It’s exciting, he says. “It is fun. It’s really high-risk, but if you have one success it is unbelievable.”
University graduate researchers are currently studying cells with Parkinson’s, cardiovascular disease, and various cancer lines. Chemistry researchers are grinding up plant juice to identify any active molecules. Those molecules will be patented and applied to various diseased cells in hopes of finding responses.
This kind of research holds great economic development potential, Ross says.
Chemistry and geographical research teams will work collaboratively with forest industry workers and First Nation communities: people who know the forest well.
Progress will stem beyond the walls of the lab and into the high schools, where educators can teach students how to use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and keep accurate records for research. Students can then use this information for summer jobs.
The long-term vision holds much promise, but there is a problem. Ross says in the past scientists have exploited the study of First Nations people and their culture. A legacy imposed from western society onto First Nation communities has made research partnerships and relationships “so tense.”
Spiritual ceremonies, such as the burning of sweet grass as a treatment for illness, have significant spiritual and healing values for Aboriginals. For a community member to walk into a “Western” society drugstore and find sweet grass candles is offensive, Ross says. It mocks their traditional values.
At this point, it is too risky to enter into First Nation domain and ask them to share information.
“This is going to be a slow process,” Ross says.
For generations First Nation people have passed down secret knowledge of plants from teacher, elder, grandparent to grandchild. Combined with a spiritual ceremony, these ground-up poultices are believed to take away stomachaches, arthritis, anxiety disorders, diabetes and even cancer, Taykwa Tagamou First Nation member Howard Archibald says.
He considers himself a student, an apprentice of traditional medicine and relies on the direction of Peter Winne, an elder in the Cochrane District to show him the old ways. To say he is a “traditional healer” is perhaps too strong a phrase, since a portion of the treatment depends upon the patient’s belief system, he says.
“The drug has to be prepared a certain way and you have to do ceremonies for them to work,” he says. “The individual has to want and believe in it.”
He has worked with youth in sweat lodges and with traditional medicine for 10 years.
“This is a learning process for me,” he says. “I still work with my elders and I don’t go beyond what I know. They are always ahead of me and I don’t try something unless I have permission from them.”
Secret poultices are kept amongst the elders. They know ingredients grown in the forest can help fight against cancers, but there is a ceremonial component to the treatment and Archibald has yet to experience it. Information is passed down when the student is ready to learn, he says.
“They won’t tell me what they have seen or what they know. Maybe I am not ready for it. They will wait until I mature.”
Some elders fear the information will be shared too readily without honouring the ceremonies that go along with them. Some of the medications are not meant to be marketed, only to be shared with patients who need it.
“That is how it is,” Archibald says. “They told me never to share the information with anyone.
That is the way we were taught.”
Ross’ impression in speaking with community leaders is that they are not so worried about being left out of the potential economic spin-offs. Rather, they are concerned about the loss of spirituality.
Perhaps the first-year NOSM students may lead the way in developing constructive relations as they embark on their first placement in Aboriginal communities.
“We are not interested in going into First Nation communities to say ‘Give us your secret knowledge on the plants,’” Ross says.
Rather, an exchange of information will have to take place and a respect for Aboriginal cultures will need to be recognized.
