Work starts with the spirit

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Brenda Daily, a consultant for Nechi Institute who moved to Kamloops, B.C., a year ago, wore many hats in 14 years of working in the Nechi fold. She was a trainer-educator, a curriculum developer, and was one of the people they called on for critical incident intervention.

Daily says "Nechi's about a movement; it's not just about a place or an organization." For her, the best thing about Nechi "is that everything did begin from a place of spirit."

She was hired initially to work on a special project that was focused on family violence.

"And that was, you know, a pretty exciting time, because there wasn't much out there at that time, 1985. The project lasted for approximately 18 months. ... It was one of the first of its kind in Native country, so we were just breaking new ground.

"So right after that, we co-wrote with Tony Martens [a therapist who worked with sexual offenders in Hinton, Alta.] a book called The Spirit Weeps, which was about child sexual abuse in Native communities, and it was one of the first ones that ever appeared. It was a collaboration that I really appreciated," Daily said.

"One of the things I appreciate about my experience with Nechi was that there was just so much trail blazing. I think Nechi's blazing trails in a different way now; one of the ways that they're doing that is trying to get recognition and respect and acceptance for Native education."

Daily says Nechi is "bravely" part of the struggle going on in the world to try to "hold on to a world view that is more harmonious and holistic, and at the same time, try to have that honored and accredited in a world that for so long did not recognize it, in fact, punished it.

"You see, at Nechi, everything begins from a spiritual base; ... and what I find in mainstream society is that ... spirituality may or may not be an afterthought."