Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth
Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth
a new investment in life with his grandchildren who show him love every day. Paying off his credit cards was a very big relief for the Elder and his wife because the old age pension is their only income. They also accessed the treatment planning money for extra counselling and traditional healing ceremonies for their family. The family is active in ceremony throughout the year. They have invested in restoring balance within the family. In their case, this was not a response to receiving money, it has been a twenty-year investment. The Elder had been an active drinker but he has been sober for about twenty-plus years. During his drinking years, he manifested many of the behaviours many drinkers follow. His parenting and his relationship with his spouse were challenging during this time. Since his recovery, he has been an active participant and ceremony holder. He has been involved with his family in dealing with his lifestyle choices during those drinking years. He has had many one-to-one times with his children about their unmet needs during those years. He had held fasting ceremonies on his land, and in one four-year period, he hosted a group of priests and nuns who chose to fast with the Aboriginal people. This provided a place for dialogue in the days before the fast and an opportunity for the nuns and priests to deal with their pain of hearing the experiences from all the former students in their parishes. A place of understanding unfolded. All of the parties opened themselves to hearing the other group’s perspectives and experiences. Each person faced their own pain and found a new connection toward building respect, acceptance, and shared relationship. Now, his son carries on ceremonies for the community to come together to share in the process of rebuilding community through ceremony. This is one more step in Nelson Mandela’s statement of “freedom” and its meaning in our lives. The Elder’s son, two daughters, and his wife are all abstainers, not because they were ever alcoholics, but because they live a lifestyle that does not need that source of stimulation. They have ceremonies and their family to provide pure stimulation. The family has hosted local National Day of Healing and Reconciliation ceremonies held each year on May 26 th . At one time, there was a boycott of the local town by the reserve because of remarks made by a town councillor. Local businesses, school board trustees, and townspeople were invited to attend a reconciliation walk with about seven hundred First Nation people. They walked with the former residential school students and their families, listened to Survivors’ speeches, visited the grave site of the students who died while in the school, and ended the walk with a feast to enjoy good company. Their action of inviting the town’s 368 | Maggie Hodgson
usiness people and others resulted in the boycott changing to a place of choosing education as a way of resolving differences, along with building relationship based on mutual respect. An adjudicator drove until two in the morning to get to the intensive care unit where the Elder was recovering after a critical health crisis to mediate an emergency ADR hearing to resolve his claim. The Elder indicated that the hearing was very sensitive to his medical condition. The very government that made the policy to outlaw his ceremonies now valued him enough to bring an adjudicator out across the border to conduct his hearing in a hospital room where medical people could help him because he had suffered a heart attack the day before. He said he experienced the adjudicator to be kind, gentle, compassionate, supportive, and sensitive to his fragile health. Being treated with respect by the system that previously treated you unkindly is an act of reconciliation. Sometimes people apologize because they have to, and sometimes they do not apologize but their behaviour changes. That is an act of reconciliation in itself. As Elder Wolfleg said it, “Don’t tell me! Show me!” The Elder’s daughter came to his hearing along with friends and a resolution health support worker. This provided the daughter with an opportunity to hear his pain and to better understand why he had acted the way he did for many years. However, he had a difficult emotional time for a few days after talking about what he had experienced. He has been able to return home because his family is there to take care of him. Even in his frail health he opens his home to government people so they might dialogue with him to build understanding about our shared history. Sometimes, building understanding takes us one more step toward manifesting reconciliation in our lives. It heals the soul murder 16 that happened when he was called names, humiliated, and beaten until he lost his hearing in residential school. He says no matter what happens he will never forget what was done to him; however, he is peaceful when looking back to the healing and reconciliation that has happened within his family circle. Together they participate in ceremonies and they share a commitment to educating others about Aboriginal approaches to management, healing, and education processes. At the last fasting ceremony, there was a local farmer who attended the berry ceremony as part of their “good neighbour practice,” and a local doctor and his wife came to the berry ceremony to participate in the drumming, singing, and feasting. Those neighbours stand as witnesses to the richness of the practices that were outlawed and now stand restored. These neighbours stand in a place of mutual respect and now understand why those historic laws From Truth to Reconciliation | 369
- Page 1 and 2: Maggie Hodgson From From Truth Trut
- Page 3 and 4: Reconciliation: A Spiritual Process
- Page 5 and 6: speak, we have a responsibility to
- Page 7 and 8: view. The therapeutic view is that
- Page 9: to the Aboriginal Working Caucus’
- Page 13 and 14: up to come home for the ceremony. H
- Page 15 and 16: Things became heated and I said to
- Page 17 and 18: to strengthen understanding and rec
- Page 19: 12 Kishk Anaquot Health Research (2
usiness people and others resulted in the boycott changing to a place of<br />
choosing education as a way of resolving differences, along with building<br />
relationship based on mutual respect.<br />
An adjudicator drove until two in the morning to get to the intensive care<br />
unit where the Elder was recovering after a critical health crisis to mediate<br />
an emergency ADR hearing to resolve his claim. The Elder indicated that the<br />
hearing was very sensitive to his medical condition. The very government<br />
that made the policy to outlaw his ceremonies now valued him enough to<br />
bring an adjudicator out across the border to conduct his hearing in a hospital<br />
room where medical people could help him because he had suffered a heart<br />
attack the day before. He said he experienced the adjudicator to be kind,<br />
gentle, compassionate, supportive, and sensitive to his fragile health. Being<br />
treated with respect by the system that previously treated you unkindly is an act<br />
of reconciliation.<br />
Sometimes people apologize because they have to, and sometimes they do<br />
not apologize but their behaviour changes. That is an act of reconciliation in<br />
itself. As Elder Wolfleg said it, “Don’t tell me! Show me!”<br />
The Elder’s daughter came to his hearing along with friends and a resolution<br />
health support worker. This provided the daughter with an opportunity to<br />
hear his pain and to better understand why he had acted the way he did for<br />
many years. However, he had a difficult emotional time for a few days after<br />
talking about what he had experienced. He has been able to return home<br />
because his family is there to take care of him. Even in his frail health he<br />
opens his home to government people so they might dialogue with him<br />
to build understanding about our shared history. Sometimes, building<br />
understanding takes us one more step toward manifesting reconciliation in<br />
our lives. It heals the soul murder 16 that happened when he was called names,<br />
humiliated, and beaten until he lost his hearing in residential school. He says<br />
no matter what happens he will never forget what was done to him; however,<br />
he is peaceful when looking back to the healing and reconciliation that has<br />
happened within his family circle. Together they participate in ceremonies<br />
and they share a commitment to educating others about Aboriginal<br />
approaches to management, healing, and education processes.<br />
At the last fasting ceremony, there was a local farmer who attended the berry<br />
ceremony as part of their “good neighbour practice,” and a local doctor and<br />
his wife came to the berry ceremony to participate in the drumming, singing,<br />
and feasting. Those neighbours stand as witnesses to the richness of the<br />
practices that were outlawed and now stand restored. These neighbours stand<br />
in a place of mutual respect and now understand why those historic laws<br />
From <strong>Truth</strong> to Reconciliation | 369
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