Cree Health Radio Handbook: Miyupimaatisiiuwin - Promoting health and well-being on Cree radio

Introduction

This online resource is a guide to promoting health and social well-being using existing radio services serving Eeyou Istchee.

It’s been 15 years since our first edition of this manual. While new technology has emerged, the medium of radio itself comes down to the same basic goals – to communicate, entertain and inform the community. 

It’s our hope that this manual will assist you in your work in promoting health and social well-being using existing radio services serving Eeyou Istchee.

The idea for the original radio guidebook grew out of a pilot project called ‘Radio for Better Health’ that was undertaken by the Cree Health Board and the James Bay Cree Communications Society in the late eighties and early nineties. The project brought together representatives from the different entities involved in Cree health and social services as well as groups and individuals committed to the production of Cree regional local radio programming. 

The purpose of the project was to explore the effectiveness and feasibility of using Cree language radio for health promotion. Cree language radio is very popular in the Cree communities. Cree is an oral language well suited to radio. 

“Our language comes from a time before the bible was even written..It’s a powerful language, and an extrodinarily beautiful language and a magical language and I think it has important things to say.. “ Tompson Highway, author

In 1990, Cree regional radio producers from the James Bay Cree Communications Society (Cree Regional Radio), located in Mistissini, began to produce a weekly radio program about health. Today, in 2010, that show continues to engage listeners with topical health issues that are important to the communities. 

Broadcast on Thursdays between 8 am and 830 am, “Miyupimaatisiiuwin” is heard across Eeyou Istchee on Cree Regional Radio.

Depending on who produces each show, the programming is either scientific or traditionally Cree in orientation. The ‘Miyupimaatisiiuwin’ approach to health involves a convergence of physical, mental, spiritual and emotional perspectives. Community members might also share their perspectives. Programs can present both the ‘scientific’ perspective as well as the opinion of the community.  The majority of programs produced by JBCCS deal with Cree traditional attitudes toward health and healing practices. Some attempt to join the two cultural threads.

While the Miyupimaatsiiuwin program in Mistissini produces a regular health program, it’s our hope this manual will also inspire other communities in the region to add their voice with news and issues from their community.

Local radio is a great place for health and social service workers, public health officers, nurses, and doctors to offer their knowledge about health issues. CBC North Quebec’s Cree language radio and television service based in Montreal also broadcast health information and sometimes entire programs on health topics.

Of course, our training in public health doesn’t often include covering health issues on the radio. The evaluation of the ‘Radio for Better Health’ project pointed out that non-native health workers tended to feel unskilled in radio production and writing techniques, but more importantly, they were aware and worried that they might not adequately reflect attitudes and values to which Cree people could relate. Furthermore, several were unsure about the most effective ways to take information from a modern medical model and translate it into a form which would be sensitive to Cree values and perceptions about health derived from their own cultural heritage. 

Cree radio announcers / producers, on the other hand, did not feel knowledgeable enough about scientific or medical information to be confident that their messages would be accurate when translated into Cree. Also, many words in the English and French medical lexicon do not exist in Cree, and the announcers / producers did not want to randomly make up their own words.

Radio is a creative and inspiring (not to mention fun!) way to reach people in your community and to start an informed discussion about important health issues. With a few tips, a little practice, you’ll soon be on your way!

January, 2011