Gathering held to help heal the spirit

Page 12

It was six days of cultural celebration, holistic healing and steps made forward to healthy lifestyles at the fifth gathering of the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide (HOSW) conference.

From Aug. 6 to 11, Indigenous peoples from around the globe participated in workshops that highlighted healing initiatives, research, wellness issues and traditional solutions to health and healing concerns.

It is the second time that Edmonton has hosted the HOSW conference. The first was hosted here in 1992 and since then Indigenous peoples have gathered for HOSW in Australia, New Zealand and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The vision of one woman, Maggie Hodgson, led to the creation of the international conference. It was first focused on alcohol and drug abuse in Indigenous communities, but has blossomed to include the many aspects of healing and heath for Native nations.

Hodgson, secretary for the International Indigenous Council (IIC) for HOSW, has seen the start of many healing journeys through leadership exchanges spawned by HOSW, where folks come together to share ideas and research in the hopes of promoting healthier lifestyles.

"In some cases we've had people (in Canada) for a year on exchange," she said. "They are here for a while to learn from each other, exchange ideas, processes and successes, so that we can strengthen as people across the world," Hodgson said.

Sharing with conference participants was Dolly Creighton of the Blood Reserve of southern Alberta.

Creighton has been contracted to help fulfill a band council resolution (BCR) that promises the tribe will establish a safe and healthy community for its members. The BCR was spawned by a rash of violence in the community a number of years ago that left four young people dead.

Creighton was asked to speak at the conference to recount the many steps the Blood Tribe has taken to realize its goal of reducing violence by 80 per cent of the rates seen in 2003/04 by the year 2010. She said the band council did a remarkable thing. They named in the BCR all those people who, in some way, are responsible to ensure that the goal be met.

Those stakeholders included all Blood Tribe administration staff (about 500 people), all staff of each of the 12 tribal entities (another 400 people), and each member of the Blood Tribe itself, about 10,000 people, 80 per cent of whom live on reserve.

At the centre of the philosophy that Creighton shared was the idea that a community can't be expected to be whole, unless each individual takes responsibility for their part in making it a better place to live. She called it coming home, looking to the self to say, "What can I do to change so that the community can change?"

Creighton drew concentric circles on a flip chart for her audience and put the word self in the centre. The next circle contained the word mother. Family went in the next. Peers, community and nation appeared in the circles farthest away.

"The centre of the circle is where everything begins," said Creighton. Community change needs to begin in the home with a personal commitment for healing. Then individuals can make a difference by influencing others by being examples and role models of change.

Participants from Australia taking part in the workshop were eager to take home the lessons learned. They said the "self at the centre" concept was foreign to them as their teachings put community at the centre of everything.

Along with the wide range of daily presentations at the conference, there was a variety of activities and events to balance out the intellectual and informative sessions. For example, there was an international Indigenous marketplace open daily to conference participants and the public. Also, the conference featured different presentations each night, including an art show at the Art Gallery of Alberta, a stage show by hypnotist Scott Ward, an International cultural evening, a video presentation featuring a film by Native Counselling Service of Alberta called Ientity, and a theatre arts evening which featured a performance of Tomson Highway's play The Rez Sisters.

A major focus of the conference was Indigenous youth, which resulted in the youth track program that featured various activities and presentations, specifically for youth age 13 to 24.

The youth track sessions included teachings from Maori, Hawaiian, Mohawk, Cherokee and Inuit presenters.

The traditional workshops included the topic Who are You??Unity and Identity Among Youth. This workshop involved the youth in activities that demonstrated how their role in unity and leadership affected them now and how it will in the future. The youth also got a lesson in poverty and justice from a group of New Zealand presenters.

Tom Porter, a spiritual leader of the Mohawk people, was the opening keynote for the first HOSW conference and the committee chose him to help close this year's event.

Porter had spent time during the week visiting with young people in Edmonton schools, telling them stories and urging them to refrain from using alcohol or drugs.

"They were perfect little human beings. I hope they always grow up like that," he said.

He brought a number of messages to share with delegates attending the final day of the conference. Paramount was the need for all of them to respect, honor and love their Indigenous traditions, for they were given to the people from the Creator, he said, to use as skeletal keys for survival and happiness.

"Our Creator wants us to have peace, and the only way that we can have peace is to respect and honor everything that the Creator has made," said Tom Porter. "When he made the Inuit, he made them a certain way and gave them songs, and you see how beautiful it is." Inuit throat singers had performed after the blessing and the ceremonial lighting of the seal oil lamp by Inuit Elder Miriam Aglukkaq of Nunavut.

"And when he made the Lakota, he gave them certain songs and a certain way. And so it is in Australia and New Zealand, allover the world. He made us to be like beautiful flowers, different colors and different shapes and different fragrances and together those flowers will never lose their identity, but when they are brought together, they make the most beautiful, awesome bouquet the universe can produce and that's what you see gathered here today."

Porter said he was particularly concerned with the rate of suicide among Indigenous youth and urged "If you are troubled, something is wrong, look for us, the older ones, before you do anything foolish. Give us a chance to see if we can hold you and hug you and maybe we will change your mind and stay."

Many who spoke at the conference returned to the idea that culture and spirituality lay at the core of the solutions of Indigenous health concerns around the world. Hodgson described them as the twin pillars of the healing movement she had been involved in for two decades. Rod Jefferies, a member of executive council of the IIC, told those gathered that the partnerships for research that had been formed over the week-long event, the programs developed, the staff exchanges that would take place, were built on the foundation of Indigenous culture and spirituality.

Giselle Robelin initiated an activity based on culture and spirituality called Heartbeats of the Nations. She brought the idea of it to the IIC, "and they invited me to share it and they passed a resolution to realize it," Robelin said.

On Aug. 6, "across the nation from east to west, north to south and sunrise to sunset, we have a whole chain of groups drumming. It started as far east as you can get and it's been traveling west."

So, what does this drumming celebrate or signify, asked Windspeaker.

"This signifies after many years of oppression and criminalization, that, of course, the drum represents the heart. The heart is beating and the healing has begun," said Robelin. "This moment is where everybody is able to stand up and say our heart is beating strong. The beating of te drum is to show that we are united. Nothing is ever going to be the same after today."

Nainoa Thompson, a traditional navigator who has led a revival of the voyaging arts in Hawaii, was part of the delegation who ceremonially took up the challenge of organizing the 2010 Healing Our Spirit Worldwide conference. Hawaiian delegates presented the IIC executive committee with miniature versions of Hawaiian canoe paddles, so they would have a means to travel to the next conference, and small bowls of salt, symbolic of the protection they would give to the good name of the conference and to acknowledge the honor of being chosen to host it.