Pandemic Proof
We know the pandemic isn’t over - despite what politicians and public health restrictions may say. Today we recorded the highest number of covid cases ever…over the entire course of the pandemic in Manitoba. That’s not good and it feels like our leaders responsible have given up. There are bright lights. Individuals have responded in pandemic specific ways, I myself have learned how to be a pandemic public speaker and other organizers and organizations have enhanced programs and systems to be pandemic proof.
Congratulations and gratitude goes out to everyone who has done what they need to do to change or adapt to the madness that the world has been in the last couple years. I must also send my condolences to our relatives who are no longer with us and there are many, who did not make it through the pandemic. Their memories and examples remain vivid in our memories and we will all work to live a better life and fight for the health and other systems that care for all of us and can truly be considered pandemic proof.
Pandemic Response
I got to be part of the the Protect Our People MB campaign where myself and other Indigenous folks encouraged our relatives in the inner city to be safe from covid wherever possible. The My Vaxx Journey Campaigns encourages younger folks to get their vaccines and are even giving away brand new sneakers for Indigenous youth to share their vaccine stories by video. Ma Mawi and their Urban Indigenous Vaccination centres are the best of community leadership, Indigenous knowledge and public health all coming together. Dr Marcia Anderson was recently awarded the Physician of the year by Doctors Manitoba. I am so happy to see these specific community based responses to the pandemic it is an example of the type of leadership I have come to expect from the village.
A lot of things seemed to stop when the pandemic hit 2 years ago in the spring of 2020. Many community initiatives, businesses and people who we love dearly did not survive covid19 and the myriad of ripple effects that came with it. The grief, the sadness, the repetition. We aren’t out of the woods yet. That’s why I have always advocated for people to take every available opportunity to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. That’s why I still try as best as I can to wear masks in public (I got some KN95’s from the library), maintain physical distancing and have been triple vaxxed. That’s what I can do as one person but I want to say I appreciate and love all of the amazing things that have happened in the pandemic; these initiatives will be able to handle any future waves of this pandemic or anything that may come after. Thank you for adjusting your behaviour to be pandemic specific - you have saved lived and demonstrated leadership. Thank you!
Pandemic Public Speaker
I know that for me when the pandemic hit, I was nervous about how it would impact my career as a self employed public speaker. Majority of my work as a story teller happened in person, in crowds and anyone who has seen me in person knows - I am allergic to staying in one spot and podiums. I am at my best when I have a wireless microphone and am asking questions of different students as I walk through the crowd. Once the pandemic hit - that was all gone. Some of that behaviour may even be completely out of the picture moving forward. But how did I pivot?
First, I did a series of free online Facebook videos and Instagram lives where I did arts and crafts with the community and asked them to join along with me. Next, I invited folks to book me in their classroom or organization to stand in for the teacher or coordinator and I could use my style of education, entertainment, laughter and lived experience to address whichever challenge was being discussed at the moment. Then, I learned how to use the tools! On zoom, there are features like reactions, raising the hand, polls and the chat box we can use as speakers to engage with others watching. I mastered the art of sharing my screen (usually lol), developed beautiful to look at and simple to understand slides. I used props, white boards, pieces of paper and colourful markers, varied the volume,speed or tone of my voice and asked viewers to follow along at home, in the vein of bob Ross or Mr Rogers or Dora the Explorer.
In this digital format, I was able to reach folks who were not able to make it out to community events in person before and they could now participate with everyone else connecting from home. I started and joined a number of initiatives to address health and connectivity for those who do not have this access as well. These new skills have allowed me adapt to the pandemic in its current shape and I'm hopeful I can adapt to future catastrophes that may force us into a virtual environment again as a public speaker and story teller. I will be ready and in fact, I will try to make it fun, well, as fun as possible under whatever challenging circumstances we may face.
Pandemic Proof
There are many folks and organizations I wanna give my love to as examples of being pandemic proof! Sabe Peace Walkers and the coalition behind Ndinawaymak, the 24 hour Indigenous led warming hut on Disraeli have done and continue to do amazing work caring for our relatives who sleep outside. While we still lost at least one relative this year to the winter in Winnipeg and one in The Pas, I know their work has helped provide a safe place for many this past winter and I am grateful for their collaboration and work that prevented much more loss of life. I have to give love to Fearless R2W Inc, we transitioned from a grassroots volunteer group to a legal organization during the pandemic, continued to meet virtually, developed a community safety host initiative and as we move forward now have more capacity to support our families. We are also developing a transitional housing initiative for families getting their kids back from child and family services and a young person aging out of care. These initiatives and many like them are helping to make kinship systems strong, flexible and able to withstand and adapt to whatever comes with pandemics and poverty.
We need systems to get used to responding to large scale pandemic style challenges in future and caring for the most vulnerable as temperatures rise and folks are unsure of how climate change will affect our environment and related catastrophes. So many lives depend on it. We may have responded well to this pandemic but are we thinking into the future and the many challenges we may soon face? Is it better to prepare for a challenge that never comes or is it better to adapt as things develop? I wish for our systems to be pandemic proof and am so proud of the people and leaders who are doing what they can to keep all of us safe, for now and for many years to come. The world could and should learn from your examples.
