'Wounded Bear' story inspires

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Almost 200 delegates from various healing shelters in Alberta took part in Children Exposed to Family Violence II, a week-long training seminar that, this year, offered more material on how to deal with the Aboriginal people they serve. The training seminar ran from June 7 to 11 at Grant MacEwan College.

"We thought it was very important (to address Aboriginal issues). We want to build a community collaborative response and work with as many partners as we can," said Jan Reimer, provincial co-ordinator for the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, the organizer of the seminar. "We heard from our evaluations last year that people wanted more in terms of an Aboriginal component. We thought, what better way to start than to say how critical that is for all of us and bridge the understanding and meet the needs of the community."

Rev. Shianne Eagleheart was one of the speakers invited to speak to seminar participants. Eagleheart is executive director of The Red Bird Center, a multi-cultural healing centre in Ohio.

Eagleheart shares her Native American culture in her presentations through "The Wounded Bear," a modern-day medicine story she wrote about healing and hope.

"I was invited to come out and present 'The Wounded Bear' to help folks better understand Aboriginal communities and the healing that's needed," said Eagleheart. "I was told that there's somewhat of a struggle with service providers to understand our culture and how to respond effectively."

Eagleheart tells the story of a bear who takes out his own frustrations, problems and pain on others, but learns to change for the better through the compassion, friendship and help of others.

Eagleheart gets participants involved in the presentation by asking the audience questions, and through that they learn about trauma recovery, forgiveness, compassion, individual and group dynamics of violence, chemical dependency and how to intervene with either the victims or perpetrators of violence.

Eagleheart developed her presentation after seeing the violence in community first hand. Eagleheart is herself a multiple trauma survivor.

Eagleheart said there is a lot of despair in Aboriginal communities and she hoped to empower the professionals to join the communities as far as healing and helping families in crisis is concerned.

"I just wanted to support those who serve," said Eagleheart.

"I hope they (support workers) will have a greater respect for the Aboriginal people of their regions and that they will spend time with their people to think of the best ways to join with their communities to heal."

"This training is critical for shelter staff, community service agencies and public safety organizations that deal with the tragedies of abuse in the home on a daily basis," said Reimer.

She added the training encourages collaborative and co-operative responses by all front line workers to assist clients in crisis, as well as in early intervention strategies.