Tag Archives: healing

Module 4 Weblog – Post #4 – Healing Through Storytelling

Through my research, I have come to understand that a key strength of digital storytelling is not simply the media file that presents the story; more specifically it is the process that led to the creation of that media.

Kookum (Grandmothers) and Youth Circles is a workbook developed to support an Equay-wuk (Women’s Group) workshop held in the winter of 2012. This group supports the needs and interests of women in the 31 First Nation communities in remote Northwestern Ontario. The workshop and the workbook both provided opportunities for both elders and youth to consider the stories that they had to tell, including their experiences of the Residential Schools – either first hand or through inter-generational impacts.

Reviewing the workbook provides tremendous insights into the types of reflection and strategies that can help contribute to people sharing their own stories as a means of healing themselves and, in some cases, those around them.

Module 4 – Post 2 – Bio-regional Education

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Ron Scollon’s Axe Handle Academy Paper brought to the forefront the importance of individuals learning about their environment and being aware of the details that comprise it. This interview with Larry Merculieff is a vivid example of how knowing your bio-region can bringing you closer to understanding yourself. This knowledge extends not only from geography, but the very plants and animals, their behaviors can bring upon an individual a profound sense of awareness. This interview is one of a series focusing on the thoughts of various community leaders and their view on knowledge and what it means in a First Nations context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUI6tUCtY28

Module 3.4. Legacy of Hope Foundation

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The Legacy of Hope Foundation is an Aboriginal Canadian Foundation that addresses the long-term psychological implications of residential schools Aboriginal generations, both old and new. The foundation’s main focus is to promote a process of reconciliation and healing in Canada, through a deep understanding of residential schooling issues, and their intergenerational impacts on both indigenous and non-indigenous Canadian people.

The Foundation established a virtual exhibition: http://www.wherearethechildren.ca/. The exhibition offers a Blackboard interactive forum, a map and timeline of the Residential School Era, a “bookshelf” that contains textbooks, a dictionary and a teacher’s guide, a 3D tour of Mohawk Institute Residential School, a “projector” of residential schools’ survivor stories and a museum-like exhibition.

Module 3 – Post 4 – A Gesture of Reconciliation

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People gathered from far and wide at Saskatoon City Hall on October 25th to witness the historic occasion of the raising of two new flags. Two new Flags representing Treaty Six and the Metis were raised as a gesture of openness and good faith, and to recognize and honour the First Nations Peoples. The ceremony included presentations from many different First Nations groups: singing, dancing, fiddle music and drumming. Speeches from local representatives, First Nations elders and Lieutenant-Governor Vaughn Solomon were included as well.

You can read the full article here

You can see pictures from the ceremony here

Module #3 – Post #1 – Healing Through Creative Arts

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The document “Dancing, Singing, Painting and Speaking the Healing Story: Healing Through Creative Art” written by Linda Archibald with Jonathan Dewar, Carrie Reid, and Vanessa Stevens provides a summary of research conducted between 2009 and 2010. Commissioned by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the study emerged out of a desire to address the effects and legacy of the residential school system. The study was built upon the notion that research “points to evidence that cultural activities are legitimate and successful healing interventions,” perhaps even more so for a population that had for generations been largely robbed of its ability to maintain and connect with aspects of their cultural identity.

The core research question the authors posed was: “What happens when art, music, dance, storytelling, and other creative arts become apart of community-based Aboriginal healing programs?.” The research involved surveys and interviews with Aboriginal participants from across Canada, and also included an art-therapy workshop.

The premise of the research is also rooted in Western-based art therapy, with the notion that due to the impact of colonial practices on Aboriginal peoples in Canada, that they suffer from “historic trauma,” and a collective post traumatic stress disorder. By reconnecting Aboriginal groups with their language, traditions, spirituality and knowledge, the hope is that a process of healing can begin.

Check out the full details and findings of the research here.

Module 3 Post 4 – Longhouse Media TV Youtube Channel

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I explored the Youtube channel for the host of the March’s Point video (Longhouse Media TV) and found a wealth of documentary videos made by many young natives using media technology. The statement of purpose from this media source echos much of the things we are learning in the course: “to catalyze Indigenous people and communities to use media as a tool for self-expression, cultural preservation, and social change.”

One of the video’s that caught my attention was Awakening Our Community. This documentary is comprised of interview snippets of indigenous people of various ages and gender discussing the topic of ‘where community comes from’ and how staying sober and having community impacts their lives. Here are some of their voices:

“It takes a community to raise a child, and when we lose children (e.g. to drugs and alcohol) it affects our community also”.

“Getting involved in my culture, I guess that pulled me away from that negative world out there… and not wanting my kids to grow up in a household like that.”

“I think it’s about each of us helping one another, and lifting each other up because we have a lot of gifts and talents within ourselves, and we just need to reach out to each other and support one another, and stop pulling each other down, but lift ourselves up together”.

“I think the first step to saving our community would be to heal, to come together and heal together, and have people come to community events where we can come together and pray together, and sing together… because the loss of our culture is a huge reason why have these addictions.”

Technology is seen here as a tool bringing people together, and promoting culture and expression as a way of bringing healing to a community.

Module 2 – Post #5 – Through the Eyes of Youth

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In her video interview for ETEC521 Module 2, Amy Parent mentions the deep insights that she felt were captured through the film projects undertaken by youth, at the Centre where she was working, in collaboration with an exceptional organization called Reel Youth.

After some searching, I tracked down three film projects (Residential Truth: Unified Future, Bandaid, and Decolonization) that had been produced with Reel Youth, expressing the thoughts and feelings of First Nations youth regarding residential schools and the concept of decolonization. The longest of these three films conveys how raw the feelings are and how much of the hurt from the residential school system endures in the current generation. This project includes footage of video interviews with young people and their parents, sharing their thoughts and emotions in a frank and very moving way. The two shorter films are both claymation projects, which employ simple and beautiful imagery that evokes just as powerful a reaction as the video interviews.

This site and these film projects served as good reminders to me of the range of ways, (music, image, voice) in which messages can be conveyed when there is an important and compelling story to be told.

Module 2 – Post #4 – Second Chances

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The digital storytelling project for First Nations women, which I described in my previous post, led me to the corresponding project posted by the Oral History Centre, which is known as ININIWAG DIBAAJIMOWAG: FIRST NATIONS MEN AND THE INTER-GENERATIONAL EXPERIENCES OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS. The men’s digital stories associated with this project are equally poignant to those of the women mentioned in my previous post. However, the one that I found most impactful was the story called Second Chance, by Dan Highway. He is a residential school survivor, who shares in simple and clear terms how the theft of the opportunity to be with his own parents impacted his abilities as a father and how his process of healing has resulted in a second chance to be a parent to his children and grandchildren.

Numerous other stories emerging from this project can be found on the Oral History Centre’s YouTube Playlist.

Module 2 – Post #3 – Generational Journeys

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As part of my research into digital storytelling as a means of expression for indigenous culture and knowledge, I have been seeking out digital stories that are shared online for public review and consideration.

Six such stories have been made available through the Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, and their project kiskino mâto tapanâsk: Intergenerational Effects on Professional First Nations Women Whose Mothers are Residential School Survivors . Each storyteller, in this project, has a unique perspective on the long term effects of the residential school system on her family and relationships. However, as Lisa Forbes states in the opening of her video story, there is a great value in viewing all of these pieces together, to understand the collective strength of their message. Each woman has the opportunity to introduce her digital story, providing insight into her choices and her motivation for the piece. While much of the material has a sombre tone, there is also a common thread of strength and resilience passed along from one generation to the next. The journeys of these storytellers provide snapshots of the ongoing legacy of the residential schools, but also reflect the plans and hopes of these women for the generations that follow them.

Mod2 – Post4. “Finding Justice”

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Last week, a news story surfaced in my community regarding First Nations people having their own court. This court is modeled after a “successful New Westminster model” as well as First Nation courts in Toronto and Kamploops. I believe the development of First Nations courts represents a significant step forward towards sovereignty for First Nations people.

The model is still largely based on the BC provincial court system, however, indigenous peoples who are called upon to face the law will now have the choice to present themselves to the provincial court, or to First Nations court.

When interviewed, Cowichan Tribes Community Justice Coordinator Calvin Swustus said, “This court is unique compared to the contemporary Provincial Court. It does have a First Nations judge, a First Nations Crown counsel, and duty counsel.”

“The First Nations court has been developed to provide a forum for Aboriginal peoples involved with the criminal justice system in a culturally based setting that takes a holistic and restorative healing approach to sentencing,” said Mabel Peter (Tth’utsimulwut), a spokeswoman for the First Nations Court Committee.

I believe that this represents a step in the right direction. The judicial system of BC is now observing the rights of some First Nations groups to be guided by First Nations healing practices, which I see as part of a growing movement to bring back the traditional ways of indigenous people.

Mel Burgess

Simpson, S. (2013). New First Nations court in Duncan first on Island – Canada.com. Retrieved October 14, 2013, from http://www.canada.com/First+Nations+court+Duncan+first+Island/9013710/story.html.