Cara Loverock
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 28, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - An aboriginal radio show focusing on good health has won international acclaim.

The Good Medicine Radio Show on CKLB received the best radio documentary for current affairs award from the international 2007 imagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival.

Rita Chretien co-hosts the award-winning Good Medicine Radio Show, at CKLB headquarters. - NNSL Photo/ Cara Loverock

The twice-weekly show airs Thursdays and Saturdays and is co-hosted by Rita Chretien and her husband Wanbdi Wakita.

The show was launched by the Native Communications Society of the NWT last February and won for its episode that examined tobacco use.

"We're trying to share good medicine and for us good medicine can be all kinds of different things," said Chretien.

"We come from a traditional aboriginal perspective."

Some other topics the show has examined include humour, injury prevention, and racism.

"We're trying to get people thinking about health and a holistic approach to health," she said. "Their heart, their mind, their body and their spirit. How they can be the best they can be."

The tobacco episode was the first for the Good Medicine show and was sponsored by the GNWT Health and Social Services Department.

The winning episode included interviews with Northerners who were able to quit smoking and explored the story of Micmac woman Heather Crowe, who was an advocate of federal legislation against tobacco use in the workplace.

"What I think just blew it over the top that they just (had to) give us the winning award was Butthead," said Chretien.

Butthead is an anti-smoking mascot for the NWT's Stay Smoke-free campaign.

"Him and I had a dialogue at the end of the show and it was quite hilarious actually."

Chretien's background is as a counsellor, but she has also been working in media for years, and co-host Wandbi Wakita is an elder and a traditional healer.

The Good Medicine show gives them the opportunity to use their knowledge in health together with their on-air skills.

"It's just an extension of what we do anyway, my husband and I, but now we get to bring it to a larger audience all at once," said Chretien, "We get to go right into people's homes and their car and their living room and try to inspire people."

Dane Gibson, executive director of the Native Communications Society of the NWT, said the show brings an aboriginal perspective to a wide variety of health issues affecting the Northern aboriginal population and there is a real need for this show in the North.

"We really wanted to become a service that provided a unique perspective that included things like Dene traditions, things like holistic health methods," said Gibson.

"We wanted to create a show that was not only informative but entertaining, so we think we did that."