THUNDER BAY— The Honouring Mothers Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Awareness Day 11th Annual Mini Pow Wow, held Sept. 9 in Thunder Bay, featured an honour song for the late Dave Fulton to acknowledge his work with FASD.
“He is the original person who started FASIN, the Fetal Alcohol Support and Information Network, in Thunder Bay,” says Lynda Banning, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder regional program worker for Northern Superior Region with the Anishinabek Nation. “He retired five years ago and moved to southern Ontario and passed away, so we wanted to honour him because when he was here in Thunder Bay, he and his wife would participate in this event annually.”
Judy Kay, FASD worker with Children’s Centre Thunder Bay, says Fulton and his wife Margie started up FASIN about 20 years ago to help support parents who were raising children with FASD.
“About 20 years ago, there was not too many services out there for parents,” Kay says. “So Dave and Margie started FASIN to support parents in their journey to raise their children. The [FASD Awareness Day] planning committee thought about Dave and his wife Margie and all of the work they had done in Thunder Bay for parents and wanted to honour him with the honour song.”
Northern Superior Anishinabek Nation Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Edward Wawia says it is important to support FASD Awareness Day because “our children are the future.”
“We have to get the message out there mainly to the mothers that are having alcohol or drug problems to get treatment, and at the very least, stop drinking [alcohol] until their child is born and continue [abstaining] after if they are breastfeeding,” Chief Wawia says. “With all due respect, get out and look after your children, look after yourselves and bring up your children right because we depend on them for our future.” (Read more…)
Re-post from Anishinabek News, by Rick Garrick, September 17, 2019