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December 15, 2010 -
The Vancouver
launch of the new book of
author Calvin Helin,
The
Economic Dependency Trap: Breaking Free to Self-Reliance,
included the attendance of
a
very
special person--Sean Muir.
Sean is on a unique mission to make a difference to Aboriginal children. While Sean
attended the book launch to support the author, he also was there to raise monies for
the two charities--the
SOS Children’s Village BC, and the
Shudokan Karate & Education Canada Society.
Through The Healthy Aboriginal Network (HAN) Sean raised money for the two non-profits through the sale of an unusual product. HAN is itself a non-profit organization that promotes health, literacy and wellness for Aboriginal youth through the production of high quality comic books that carry important messages to the most at-risk children and youth in Canada.
The comic books are beautifully designed by some of Canada's most talented Aboriginal graphic designers, and writers. The compelling tales they tell are story boarded and arrived at through a careful process involving detailed focus group input (see some of the focus group test shorts here). Current books deal with smoking prevention, youth health issues, the importance of staying in school, mental health, and the critical topics of suicide, sports/gang, diabetes and gambling awareness. In B.C. they are sometimes produced with the support of the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Child and Family Development.
What is most interesting is how this project came to fruition. In 2004, Sean was trying to create a better First Nations food distribution system in Canada. On the one hand, northern fly-in communities were being charged $20 for 4 liters of milk, and $5 for an apple. And on the other, he was aware of First Nations ranchers who couldn’t make a living selling their animals at auction. The answer seemed obvious to Sean– why not have the southern farmers sell their products to the northern communities. It seemed reasonable to seek to simply close the loop and take out the middleman’s profit. The economics were undeniable – he thought he could beat the fly-in stores by 50% on price. He was not, however, able to get the project off the ground. It turned out that northern people didn’t want to bulk buy meat for a discount – they wanted to purchase a pound at the time, just like everyone else. Even if it cost twice as much.
SMOKING PREVENTION
GANG
AWARENESS
MENTAL
HEALTH
So Sean changed his focus. He started sending out emails to health authorities asking how they hoped to educate the Aboriginal population about nutrition, when they were spending thousands of dollars a year on health promotion in the face of junk food companies who were spending billions of dollars a year on advertising. It was obvious who is going to have the greater affect.
Sean was subsequently advised that there was an innovative Aboriginal health funding program coming up and that if he had a good idea he should apply for it. He remembered reading comic books with his buddies as a kid. It turned out that one of his friends always read his books much faster than him (and Sean was a good reader). So Sean asked him, "how do you read your books so fast?" And he said, "I don’t. I just look at the pictures and get the gist of what’s going on." Sean remembered the reading difficulties that the kid had--just as many Aboriginal children have. It was obviously an impediment to their learning about these most important issues. So he pitched the idea to create health literacy with comic books for youth. Much to his surprise it was eventually funded by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. That was nearly six years ago and HAN has now sold over a quarter million comic books.
SUICIDE
AWARENESS
YOUTH
HEALTH
DIABETES
AWARENESS
Given the greying population and the demographic importance of a rapidly growing Aboriginal population, the role that Sean, HAN, and their comic books play is becoming one of increasing importance to the nation.
-30-
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To Contact HAN or to buy comic books click here or:
Phone: (250) 871-8880
Email: sean@thehealthyaboriginal.net
DROPPING OUT/STAYING IN SCHOOL
