Sturgeon Lake hosts residential school healing conference

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Alongside a picturesque lake in northern Alberta, the first northern residential school conference titled Regaining our Spirit was held from Aug. 26 to 30.

Workshops were held in tents adjacent to the community hall and included instruction on traditional parenting, healing through the abuse, the justice system, as well as an addictions workshop.

Facilitators and speakers included Shirley Armstrong, Albert and Alma Desjarlais, Loretta English, Priscilla Lalonde, Rodney Ward, Bob Miracle, Willie Blake and Carola Cunningham and Yvonne Maes.

The community took part in the entertainment that was provided each evening throughout the conference. The feast and round dance, Karaoke night, talent show, and a sober dance were well attended.

More than 250 delegates from surrounding communities attended the five-day event.

Shirley Armstrong who was the public relations person for the conference was pleased to see the healing that took place.

"I was just so overwhelmed by this conference. I believe that a lot of emotions were brought out. It was a great success. We did not have as many people as we expected, but to me, where can you go for $50 to get healing sessions, good food, good company, unity and entertainment. It is way more than I expected. So much more than I expected. It's the friendship of the people in Sturgeon Lake, the way they've accepted everyone into their community, and embracing them as their own family, to me that was also just overwhelming," she said.

Elzear Punchy Whitehead of Peace River, Alta. donated $5,000 to have the conference. He said it made a dream of his come true.

"It was my dream. I always wanted it, and it is happening now and my main reason for supporting this conference is to see if I could heal myself. I cannot heal anybody if I cannot heal myself. There are a lot of people here that are hurting. A lot of people are in denial.

"They won't admit that they were abused but when you get together like this it all starts to come out. This conference is all about residential school survivors. I was in one for 11 years, so getting together and telling our stories, which are not really stories because they actually happened, this is what healing is all about," he said.

Dave Nabew, president of the planning committee, stated that if this conference reached one person, then he is considering it a success.

"The healing that is happening here is phenomenal. Even by the way people are responding and telling their stories, as you go around in the healing circle you can pinpoint that. You can hear it. I think that the conference was a success.

"There was such a wide range of topics that were talked about here. I think that we pretty much hit on all the topics that we wanted to and we met all the objectives that we thought we would achieve. If one person could get one thing from this whole conference, then it has been a success for me. My expectations are not that high, but that is what I think," he said.

Master of ceremonies James Yellowknee kept things rolling with his humorous sidelines and experiences.

"Conferences like this one here need to continue to happen. They need to continue to take place. Some of our Elders and the parents lack skills on how to love. If we are going to teach our children and grandchildren not to be part of the cycle, the cycles of abuses such as violence and you name it, we need to start healing ourselves. That is why we need more people to understand what these conferences are for, especially the grassroots people, the Native people. We need to quit blaming, we need to quit denying and we need to start working on ourselves.

"We also need to start to think that we are something because a lot of our older people and adults still look down on themselves. If I'm going to be talking about life to the younger generation and generations to come, I better look at my own backyard and start cleaning up my own garbage," he said.

Armstrong said she hopes th conference will become an annual event.

"I really have a good feeling that people are ready for a change. They are tired of living their abuse and they want a different life for their children and grandchildren, and that to me is what I think is what made this conference a great success because of people wanting to change. I believe that they are ready now," she said.