CASDA - Deputy Grand Chief Walter Naveau

It is my great honor to welcome Deputy Grand Chief Walter Naveau of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation to Across the Desk and the CASDA podcast series. Deputy Grand Chief joins us to discuss the growing concern about autism in the First Nations communities. We discuss how families need access to autism services which not only provide existing non-Indigenous learnings but to also incorporate traditional Nishnawbe healing ceremonies and medicines. We also focus on how geography and education create barriers to accessing services and what can be started to fix this problem. Halton as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many First Nations and the Métis. From the Anishinabe to the Attawandaron, the Haudenosaunee, and the Métis - these lands surrounding the Great Lakes are steeped in Indigenous history. ​ ​As we gather today on these treaty lands we have the responsibility to honour and respect the four directions, land, waters, plants, animals, ancestors that walked before us, and all the wonderful elements of creation that exist. We would like to acknowledge and thank the Mississaugas of the ​Credit First Nation for sharing their traditional territory with us.