Totem pole tells healing story

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Clients at the Nechako Treatment Centre normally only reside there for 28 days, but a recent intake group of eight men have left something of lasting value for the clients who will come after them.

According to Rob Ziegler, a senior counsellor at the centre, the group finished carving a 13-foot totem pole early last month as part of their healing work and as a symbol of the friendship and healing they gained while there. The men raised the totem pole in a moving ceremony outside the treatment centre building located on the Prince George Regional Hospital grounds.

The treatment centre supports men and women recovering from addictions.

"For the past few weeks, carving this pole has provided us a chance to meet, build friendships, work out our problems and plan for the future," said Kelvin Mayes from Kamloops, who was a member of the group of carvers. "For us, it truly is a healing pole."

Percy Fowler from Kitwanga said, "We also learned a lot about each other as we studied, planned and carved."

A lot of this learning involved anger management and conflict resolution, Ziegler explained. "Conflicts arose out of it over, 'this is the way my people do it and this is the right way.' Then others were going 'yes, but there's many of us here with different ideas.' So at times it was sort of like tradition from long ago was bucking up against (new ideas and different cultural ideas).

"It was a useful experience for them to work through ... at times they really got up against each other and had to work it out. I think it's partly why they called it the healing pole, because it provided lots of opportunity for them.

"Instead of just teaching theoretical anger management skills, we had actual opportunities where we could take the situations right into the arena and use the skills right there," said Ziegler, who is non-Native himself but who has worked at the centre 13 years.

Mayes added, "Our work on the healing pole created a family. In every family, we don't always agree, but we learned to respect each other's opinions and work out issues."

Ziegler said that carving a healing pole was initially Mayes' idea.

"I'm not certain exactly where it came from in him, other than he's worked with men himself, and he said, 'I like to have projects to do and I think it's a nice thing for us to have to do in our spare time. Keeps me busy and the other men just jumped right on it'," Ziegler related.

They obtained the log, which was donated to them by Lakeland Mills of Prince George, on the third day and they took about 24 or 25 days to complete it, excluding their "off" day, which is Sunday.

"They worked in between groups, in between sessions; they worked in the evening after their 7 to 9 evening group; they worked on Saturday when there was any free time," said Ziegler. "They wanted to get it done on time for their graduation ceremony. They were really quite driven."

The men obtained help to transfer the design from a photocopy to tracing paper and then they copied the design to the pole.

Six symbols give life to the totem pole and honour the various cultures of the carvers. They also represent the honour the carvers want to give to the Creator and to their own healing process. Starting at the bottom, the six symbols are these: The beaver, for the Dunne-zaa people of northeastern B.C.; the frog for the Carrier people; the wolf for the Gitksan people; the bear, as an icon for all nations; The shaman, as a tribute to healers in all cultures; and the eagle, which sends messages to the Creator.

Brian Wolf from Prophet River acknowledged the support they got from not only Lakeland Mills, but the centre's dedicated staff. "Their help was awesome, as well as the help from staff at the Nechako Treatment Centre who helped buy the tools and supplies we needed to carve the pole."

Ziegler said he doesn't think any of the men had previous experience carving a totem pole. "Kelvin himself is a very talented guy-whateverhe puts his hands to. We make masks here, so he got clay and he was making objects. All kinds of stuff. ... So he led the way. He said, 'I've done carving before, but never anything like this.'

"And then Percy Fowler, who you could say was the Elder of the group ... he's been exposed to poles since he was young, he's been in that area, so he had some idea about the clan animals. And Kelvin went to the library and got a number of books out on totems and then they made a group decision on some of the designs."

Ziegler said the centre formerly had co-ed programs for 28 days, with weeks two and three being "gender-specific," however they all were housed in the same building. Now they have separate men's and women's programs to avoid the problem of people "in early recovery trying to get into relationships."

Formerly, too, their programs were six weeks long, but they were shortened because women with children did not want to be away from home that long, and men with seasonal jobs were concerned about losing work.

"Now I think it's mandated-the Northern Health Authority-all programs are 28 days, no more."

Ziegler can't say whether the length of program makes a difference in the proportion of clients who are successful remaining clean and sober. He believes a strong support system when clients leave is one of the best assets they can have.

"Some people have cleaned up their stuff and they're ready to go by the fourth week; others, you're just starting to see the actual work surfacing at that point?even though they might have had some kind of emotional, cathartic ah-hahs-to put it into action and to change their behaviours (28 days) is a short time to do it.

"Others get it quick. I'm not sure, maybe they're further down the road to recovery to begin with. So we see some of those people back within a year-and-a-half or two years.

"I don't think of the centre anymore as an alcohol and drug centre. I think of it actually as a place of self-learning, kid of like in a university or something, where they come back and learn more and more about their own self and what's happened in their lives."