What Dr. Nicole Redvers, chair of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation and Elder Be’sha Blondin lacked in funding, writes columnist Shelley Wiart, they made up in passion and commitment to making operational, their urban land-based healing program, targeting at-risk First Nations, Metis and Inuit in Yellowknife. They are pictured Wednesday at the Arctic Inspiration Awards Ceremony in Ottawa.
When I met Dr. Nicole Redvers, chair of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation and Elder Be’sha Blondin at the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife last November, they had no administrative help and no access to federal funding for their program, The Arctic Indigenous Wellness Project.
What they lacked in funding they made up in passion and commitment to making operational, their urban land-based healing program, targeting at-risk First Nations, Metis and Inuit in Yellowknife. Their goal was to keep it simple – grassroots – canvas tents set up for elders, staffed half days during the week, to share their traditional knowledge, provide mentorship and traditional counseling, share their traditional language, do traditional food preparation, and facilitate cultural gatherings.
From the start they were concerned about funding. Their current grant would run out in June 2018 and they could not rely on the government or western institutions for money because of scepticism of Indigenous-based healing programs. Evaluations to prove the validity of health practices often rely on hard, biomedical outcomes, which are not compatible with the spiritual nature of Indigenous healing.
Elder Be’sha states, “The cultural way is very different than the modern system – the way they look at people. The modern system doesn’t have a spirit, but the traditional way has a spirit. We make sure when a person comes in for healing that it’s up to me to diagnose them for healing. Before I can heal that person I need to know their story because what that story tells me is what created them to be where they’re at. I look at it as a spiritual person and healer; I make sure they have a way of healing themselves first.”
Also, the policy framework of health institutions and research often has the assumptions of Indigenous inferiority – how can speaking your language or making a drum possibly heal trauma and disease?
Nicole states, “The primary point is demonstrating that when people go back to culture, not necessarily just going out on the land, because there is lots of on-the-land programs that do cultural work, but they don’t do healing – let’s bring in this healing aspect as an effective tool and revitalization process where young and old reconnect with the healing traditions of their culture. It is addressing some of the traumatic issues people have had in their lives, and finding ways to get people excited about coming to work on the issues they have in an environment where they feel safe and comfortable.”
Nicole highlighted during our meeting that western medicine was not helping Indigenous people heal from the legacy of residential school. She states, “What we’re doing right now is not working. And what we’re doing is trying to indigenize western models of care, which is not the same as Indigenous healing. We need to ensure that the structure is what we need and to fit western medical protocols into that as opposed to the other way around."
The outcome from our meeting was the collective agreement that this coming summer Dr. Redvers, the elders and knowledge holders from the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation (AIWF), and allied scholars would meet in Yellowknife to create new methodologies and frameworks for capturing outcomes from on-the-land cultural activities and traditional healing practices. We recognize the need for change in how we deal with traditional medicine projects, and the creation of funding policies that align with the sacred work of traditional healers, while not sacrificing the sacredness of the practice.
The $1 million dollar Arctic Inspiration Prize (AIP) has given the AIWF the opportunity to conduct long-term research and create new, culturally appropriate methodologies and frameworks. This program, which likely would not have been funded by western institutions, has become the ultimate act of reconciliation in Indigenous health. It has also given the Elders the opportunity to pass on their traditional knowledge, which was at risk of being lost due to the lack of spaces to practice traditional healing, and because our elders are passing away.
This prize, and the further committed $60 million dollars on behalf of the founders of AIP – Sima Sharifi and Arnold Witzig – has given the Metis, Inuit and First Nations of the North the ability to heal on our own terms. It is a gift of health, and an important step in recognizing that Indigenous ways of knowing, and healing are as valid as Western methods.