Culture paves the way to healing

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According to an elder's prophecy, the young people will come to teach the old.

So Travis Dugas, is learning as much as he can about his culture, which he in turn shares with people during his travels.

"When we as a people looked away from our culture, we looked away from ourselves," Dugas says. "When I learn more about the culture, I learned more about myself."

He's just returned from a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he made

two presentations on self-growth through Native culture at the National 1992 Indian

Child Welfare Act Conference.

A Cree from Slave Lake, Dugas often travels with elders Frank Daniels from Saskatchewan and Isabelle Auger from Slave Lake. Both Daniels and Auger also work with inmates in the Bowden Institution north of Calgary.

Dugas was named male athlete of the year in Alberta in 1989, but that was after he turned his life from drinking and partying to working out and concentration on academics.

But as his life gradually changed, he still felt empty inside, a feeling that disappeared when he took part in round dances. He decided to want to meet the people who were effective in healing, and the elders chose to work with him.

"It was an honour."

Dugas is a youth self-growth consultant with the Aboriginal Youth Project Society, which is directed by elders who guide and protect him and teach him how he can heal and share with others. When the elders are unable to travel, Dugas acts as their legs and carries their message.

His presentation is titled Within all of us is the best. He shared his knowledge from personal experience and provides insights into an effective spiritual way of life.

Dugas visited Kahnewake before his New Mexico trip, which was a sort of preparation for him. He did presentations on the reserve and on radio during National Addictions Awareness Week.

The atmosphere was very tense there, he says, but in spite of that, he found he had more in common with the Mohawks than he expected. The fact he learned some French and Mohawk before he left Alberta helped him fit in.

The people wanted humor from Dugas during his presentations, but what they needed was sharing and basic happiness skills - especially those in helping jobs.

"If someone is in a helping job and they're not happy, how can they show someone else how to be happy? My responsibility is to help bring the kindness and the love out."

The trip also changed his perception of warriors. Now he sees a warrior as someone who first of all battles his greatest enemy - himself. A warrior must overcome the tendency to undermine self-esteem by putting himself down before he can become a proud representative of his people. That means he must make a friend of himself.

"What better best friend to have? That friend will always be with us," Dugas says.

Aboriginal culture is strongest in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Dugas says, and it weakens as one travels east. All Indian cultural events are spiritual ceremonies, but as they become more commercialized, the spirit and healing are taken out of them.

Dugas sees no end to his cultural learning.

"As much as I know about the culture, it's nothing compared to what there is to know."