Snuneymuxw First Nation

One Canoe Family

A mural in our Health Centre, created by members of our Health team who volunteered their time to paint this image of who we are, and where we are going, honoring our past, present, and future.
 
“This painting is about collectiveness, ownership, direction, leadership, humility, respect, self-determination, self-governance, and free will. When asked what is my relationship to a community member?  It is about identity.  It is about relationship.” – Snuneymuxw Nursing Staff Member 

About the One Canoe Family Model of Care:

The One Canoe Model of Care is the official model of care of Snuneymuxw Hulit Lelum. 
 
Developed by staff in 2012, it continues to guide how care is understood, delivered, and lived within the health center. In our own way we all have our own oral story about who we are as a health care provider.
 
This model is grounded in Snawayalth (Snuneymuxw teachings).
 
The client is the skipper. We are the people the client allows into their canoe.
The client chooses the direction.
The client chooses who enters the canoe.
The client chooses who remains in the canoe.
The client may also ask someone to step out of their canoe.
 
The client chooses the speed at which they heal.
They choose how fast we collectively move together.
 
The water is symbolic of the environmental forces (the tides of life)  that may work with or against the client. These waters may be calm or turbulent and are shaped by lived experience, history, systems, relationships, and circumstance.
 
Care is always client-driven. At times, the client may take us out in calm waters. At other times, we may be asked to paddle with them in their storm. 
 
All staff are in the canoe, including the receptionist, the patient driver, the administrator, the administrative support staff, the home care support worker, the mental health worker, the MOA, the home care nurse, the community health nurse, the LPN, the homeless outreach worker, the housing staff, the First Nations Knowledge Keepers, the managers, and the doctors.
 
No one person’s voice is more important than another. Each person has a paddle. Each role matters.
No one can stand in a moving canoe. We all sit. No one person can pull more than another.
 
Our energy must be collective for there to be balance. If one person pulls harder, faster, or louder than the rest, the canoe loses its way.
 
We must accept where the client is at in their healing journey. Our role is not to force direction, timing, or readiness.
 
We work collectively, in a good way, to serve our skipper: the client.
When we do this well, we become one mind, one heart, one spirit.
 
For over 10,000 years, our people have held knowledge of how to paddle together. Our Snawayalth (teachings) are not new. They are carried forward, and live today in service to our community members.

Policy: One Canoe Family Model of Care

Overview:

This approach supports clients to identify those they trust as part of their “Canoe Family”. When initiating a healthcare service relationship with a client, the healthcare provider will ask the client “Who is your canoe family?” and help the client to determine the people who make up their support network.

Background:

In the Coast Salish culture, those that are in the canoe with you are family; you trust each other and take care of each other. 

Snuneymuxw First Nation people believe there is a vital interconnection between individual wellness and the collective whole. The whole family plays a part in the healing. 

Families hold knowledge, expertise and resources. The client identifies who their “family” is (this may include family members, friends and other loved ones.). The client’s family is then invited to a circle to explain and request support and determine which ways they can be of support for the family member. Circles are held as needed and supports are re-evaluated. 

By using the One Canoe Model we incorporate a cultural approach to service delivery that follows traditional practices of the Snuneymuxw.

Guiding Principles:

  1. We All Pull and Support Each Other:
    In a canoe family, we are ready for whatever comes. The family can have disagreements with each other at its worst but that family will never let itself sink. Each paddler is equal. No one person is more important than another. Each paddler is valued for the work they do. When we accept that we are not alone in our actions then we also know that we are lifted up by those we call “family”.

  2. There is to be No Abuse of Self or Others:
    Respect and trust cannot exist in anger. It must be thrown into the sea, so it can be cleansed. It has to be washed off the hands and thrown into the air where the stars can take care of it. We will look back at the rip tide the family pulled through and be amazed at how powerful we thought the dangers were, but we survived.

  3. Be Flexible:
    If you can’t figure out one way to make it work, then do something different. When the wind confronts you sometimes you are supposed to go the other way.

  4. The Gift of Each Enriches All:
    Every person’s story is important – everyone is part of the journey, each bring their gifts to the family.

  5. Every Stroke We Take is One Less We Have to Make:
    Keep going. Try not to give up. Even against the most relentless wind somehow a canoe family moves forward. Each pull forward is real movement towards healing and health in the canoe family.

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