Healing
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The Aboriginal Experience
The Residential school system removed the children of generations of Aboriginal families from all across Canada, there are few communities that went unscathed. While not every child had a completely negative experience, the majority did. The dark reality is that not only did many children suffer from tragic abuses, but whole communities were also left bereft. Entire cultures were told that they could not properly raise their children, that their lifestyles were inferior. The laughter of their children disappeared from the land.
This coupled with all the other indignities of land theft, relocations, the outlawing of religious and cultural expression and terrible racism and discrimination has been a heartbreak of such magnitude as to be almost more than the people can bear.
Initiatives and Inspirations
The health and welfare of Aboriginal communities and individuals is currently at various levels of wellness. Some are still in full distress, in need of the most basic elements of life such as clean water, decent housing and adequate nutrition. Some have gone a long way down the road of healing, and some are just beginning to heal. Politics and tradition, greed and integrity are running head to head in some places, making the way long and difficult.
The common thread through all of this is healing. The need for it and the ways to go about it are being explored. The need for the non-aboriginal population to understand, finally, the extent and depth of the indignities suffered in the past and the ones ongoing is crucial. The need to leave behind shame and fear is also so important.
Aboriginal justice, the settlement of treaties, reconciliation over the residential school experience, reclamation of child protection services, reclamation of culture; there is much to do.
Looking to those who have made creative and necessary strides towards healing can give us ideas and hope.
Healing is slow, necessary and incredibly inspiring when it happens. There are stories emerging of a spirit dedicated to recompense, reconnection, rejuvenation and re-emergence. It is to these we can look, these that can lead the way.
Aboriginal Healing Foundation
www.ahf.caThe Aboriginal Healing Foundation is dedicated to supporting sustainable healing projects throughout Canada. These projects deal directly with the individual and inter-generational effects and impacts that the Residential school system has had on the Aboriginal community. Anger, loss of culture and ability to parent effectively, drug and alcohol abuse are just some of the painful results that people are dealing with. AHF may be able to assist you or your community in obtaining help and answers. To learn about funding for projects, click on "Residential School Resources".
Their web-site also has a wonderful and poignant exhibit called "Where are the Children?" It is intended to educate descendants and non-aboriginals as to what the residential school system was like and what happened. There are short videos, virtual tours of a residential school, personal stories and more. This is a good site for both Aboriginal and non-aboriginal People to visit.
Hollow Water
Hollow Water is a story of hope and healing in process. It is a story about a community that has dedicated itself to undoing the tangle created by history. The people of Hollow Water faced head-on the devastation of substance abuse that was threatening to destroy their community. In their quest to be get to the underlying causes, the painful reality of sexual abuse surfaced.
Through the Healing Circle, those who have abused are allowed to heal and to show responsibility to their victims. Their own humanness is also honored and the reality of their own victimization and the cycle of abuse is brought to light. When an offender is incarcerated, not only does no healing happen and the possibility of reoffence remains, but the community loses a member.
This web-site (click here) has an excerpt from the book by Rupert Ross called Returning to the Teachings. You will find a review of this book under the "Culture and Coming Home" on the Home Page. An excellent documentary has been made about Hollow Water, click here for information about the film and how to purchase it.
Four Worlds Project
www.fourworlds.caAlkali Lake
www.4worlds.org/4w/ssr/Partiv.htmUts'am - Witness
www.utsam-witness.ca"Through the Roundhouse Community Centre, the Squamish Nation is extending an invitation for the public to camp within their Northern Territory every weekend during June and July. The purpose is to provide an opportunity to share more about their land, way of life and important ecological issues that affect us all. As a Witness participant you will be exposed to a broad range of ideas from Witness facilitators who include members of the Squamish Nation as well as local artists, mountaineers, ecologists and community activists."
Indian Residential School Survivors Society
www.irsss.caThe IRSSS is also committed to helping residential school survivors to heal and also to seek recompense and reconciliation. They offer an explanation of the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) process, a petition to stop the funding cuts coming to the AHF in 2007, trial support, workshops and healing projects, a chat room and national 24/7 crisis line, 1-866-925-4419. There is much more on this important site.
Rediscovery International
www.rediscovery.orgRediscovery International was created in response to the distressed communities of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii). Like so many of our Aboriginal communities they were suffering from broken family relations, substance abuse and troubled young people. The local native and non-native communities created the first Rediscovery camp under the direction and guidance of Haida elders.
Through this camp cultural awareness and ties to the land were renewed. Since this initial camp, there are now dozens across Canada, as well as the United States and Thailand. Visit this site to discover the value of rediscovery and be sure to read their newsletters and learn about the Canoe Quest...
Turtle Island - Healing and Wellness
The Turtle Island Native network is one of the best web-sites to find almost anything about Aboriginal life. This link will take you to their Healing and Wellness page. Click on the words highlighted in red to find information about residential schools, healing and wellness, communities, children and families, resources etc.
www.turtleisland.org/healing/healing.htmThis page has some good questions and answers about residential schools:
www.turtleisland.org/healing/infopack.htmThis is their main page
www.turtleisland.orgThe International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
www.grandmotherscouncil.com"WE, THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF THIRTEEN INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS, represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come. We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future. We look to further our vision through the realization of projects that protect our diverse cultures: lands, medicines, language and ceremonial ways of prayer and through projects that educate and nurture our children."
The International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers began to meet in October 2004. They have formed a formal alliance and are raising their voices and prayers in the preservation of indigenous cultures, land, people and our Mother Earth.
A documentary film is being made about their journey. You can view the trailer here and you can read their statement of goals here.
Our Grandmothers are praying for us. Grandmothers are the backbone and the foundation of our societies and cultures, the whole world over. They are our respected elders and our teachers. They are the ones we can run crying to and they are the ones who will hold us in a loving embrace while at the same time whispering in our ear that we must smarten up, we must be strong and we must begin to unite and to be honest about what is important. They tell us not to be victims. They tell us that we are children of the Creator and have been given strength and heart and intelligence. They tell us we must not let down their great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren. They tell us that if we do, it will break their hearts. They tell us to keep our cultures and traditions and our relationship to spirit.
Our world, our cultures and economic systems are in distress. We begin to heal these things by finding the faith and inspiration to heal ourselves. The 13 grandmothers want to give us this inspiration to mobilize our intention and to heal, for the next seven generations and beyond.
Quotes
Anna Mae Pictou Aquash
"I am a part of this Creation as you are, no more and no less than each and every one of you within the sound of my voice.
I am the generation of generations before me and the generations to come...
If I have gone against this Creation...
no man on this Universe holds the power to punish me other than the Creator himself.......
You are continuing to control my life with your violent, materialistic needs.
I do realize your need to survive and be a part of this Creation...
but you do not understand mine...
I have traveled through this country and I have observed your undisciplined military servants provoke those who rights are the same as yours....
I am not a citizen of the United States or a ward of the Federal Government, neither am I a ward of the Canadian government. I have a right to continue my cycle in this Universe undisturbed..."
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce
"We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft clods of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now...but it will grow again....like the trees. May serenity circle on silent wings and catch the whisper of the winds."
Black Elk, Lakota Holy Man
"Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and around about beneath me was the whole hoop of the WORLD. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight. We are all sacred."
Ojibway prayer
Great Spirit,
Look at our brokenness,
We know that in all creation
Only the human family
Has strayed from the sacred way.
We know that we are the ones
Who divided
And we are the ones
Who must come back together
To walk in the sacred way _Grandfather,
Sacred One,
Teach us love, compassion, honor
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.
Black Elk, Lakota holy man
"There is a word meaning "All My Relations." _We will live by this word. _We are related to everything. _We are still here! _We shall live! _Mitakuye Oyasin" _
Luther Standing Bear (1868-1939) Oglala Sioux Chief
"The Lakota could despise no creature, for all were of one blood, made by the same hand, and filled with the essence of the Great Mystery. In spirit, the Lakota were humble and meek. 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth' -- this was true for the Lakota, and from the earth they inherited secrets long since forgotten. Their religion was sane, natural, and human."
Black Elk, Lakota Holy Man
"Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same, and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where the were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children."
Chief Red Jacket, 1805
The Great Spirit does right. He knows what is best for his children. We are satisfied. Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion, or to take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.
Mr. Justice Thomas Berger, Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, (aka the Berger Inquiry).
"The culture, values and traditions of native people amount to more than crafts and carvings. Their respect for the wisdom of their elders, their concept of family responsibilities extending beyond the nuclear family to embrace a whole village, their respect for the environment, their willingness to share - all of these values persist within their own culture even though they have been under unremitting pressure to abandon them."
Noah Augustine, from his article "Grandfather was a knowing Christian," Toronto Star, Toronto ON Canada, 2000-AUG-9.
"Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge; rather than accepting bread and toast from the Holy Priest, I smoke a ceremonial pipe to come into Communion with the Great Spirit; and rather than kneeling with my hands placed together in prayer, I let sweetgrass be feathered over my entire being for spiritual cleansing and allow the smoke to carry my prayers into the heavens. I am a Mi'kmaq, and this is how we pray."