By Heather Conn
Painted war canoes, hand-carved from red cedar. Cedar baskets and hats, intricately woven from long strips of bark. Tall, cedar totem poles: visual tales of family lore, mythic figures and beasts of power. For many centuries, the Haida people on the BC islands of Haida Gwaii have lived amidst stunning, mossy rain forests of cedar and fir, surrounded by salmon-rich seas.
Across time, they have lived as warriors, hunters and gatherers, living in balance with the land and water. Through compelling stories, songs, art, feasts and ceremonies, they have shared the cultural traditions of their Raven and Eagle heritage. “Our culture is born of respect and intimacy with the land and sea and the air around us,” says the Council of the Haida Nation website. “We owe our existence to Haida Gwaii.”
On these rugged islands of mist and mountains in British Columbia’s coastal north, the Haida have survived and thrived despite record-setting gales and fierce storms; they continue to face Canada’s strongest winds and brutal weather fronts off the Pacific Ocean. Today’s communities of Old Massett in the north and Skidegate at the south end of Graham Island form the main First Nations centres on this 9,940-square-kilometre archipelago, formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands. And for more than a decade, UBC Dentistry has sustained a significant presence in these two Haida Gwaii towns, providing round-the-clock service 365 days a year.
The university provides top-quality generalist and specialist care at Skidegate Dental Clinic—a collaborative effort between the UBC Faculty of Dentistry, Health Canada and the Haida Nation—which opened in February 2002. A dental clinic at the Haida Health Centre in Old Massett offers leading care to residents who range from children and retirees to commercial fishermen, loggers, small business operators and tourism entrepreneurs. About 20 percent of UBC Dentistry’s Haida Gwaii patients are non-First Nations people.
Through a series of rotations that also involve visiting health care professionals, UBC’s dentistry residents, graduate students in specialty programs and dental students receive invaluable hands-on learning and gain quick access to more complex and diverse dental issues than they would otherwise see at the university’s controlled clinical setting at the Point Grey campus. UBC Dentistry’s stellar model in Haida Gwaii combines service learning with comprehensive community education and research.
This community-based program, which emerged directly from the needs and requests of the Haida, provides cost-effective dental work to a population that previously had poor access to oral health care and disease management. The Canadian Dental Association likens the oral health condition of the country’s Aboriginal people, in general, to that of those in developing countries.
Read the entire article on the Faculty of Dentistry website.