Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth
Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth
were so devastating to this family and how they have taken the responsibility to restore ritual, ceremony, belonging, and compassion in their hearts. Long-Term Community Investment in Wellness: A Case Example In another community, a woman took her compensation and paid off her car, helped her son with the cost of a couple of courses to upgrade his marks, paid off her credit cards, and invested the balance of the money into an RRSP. She has accessed years of therapy to assist her in dealing with the criminal charges she laid against the person she had been abused by. She had a five-year civil court battle in order to reach a settlement on the abuse she suffered. Her family is involved in learning about and participating in ceremony and attends church with a focus of maintaining their addictionsfree lifestyle. She is a former leader of her community and maintains her leadership through informal role modelling in lifestyle choices. She is a postsecondary graduate. She obtained her post-secondary education as the court processes were going on. She participated in a community reconciliation ceremony with other Survivors of abuse suffered at the hands of a member of a religious order. It was a very difficult process because all the people did not accept the concept of community-based reconciliation ceremonies, and there were many bitter people there, including some of the victims of abuse. However, for some of the people, the ceremony was one more step toward healing. Not everybody was in the same place in terms of forgiving. She has participated in community commemoration ceremonies that include Survivors who have settled their claims, family members, IRSRC staff who offered apologies on behalf of Canada, and representatives from the RCMP, the church entity, surrounding municipalities, local service agencies, and non-Aboriginal neighbours. They held a feast, a tobacco-burning ceremony, and a grieving ceremony in memory of family members who died in the schools or passed on since being in the school. Daily sweat lodges were available during their hearings. They had a balloon ceremony where they released a balloon that had their residential school number on it, and they let the balloon with the number go into the wind to be carried away. They had all of this along with a community dance with former students who played in the residential school band entertaining. One man who was a big-looking cowboy with big shoulders, big belt buckle, and a big hat said to himself when he released his balloon, “If I never get a penny out of this it will have been worth it to go through this today!” One gentleman, who had chosen not to return to the community after his school experience, lived in the inner city of Vancouver. They went to pick him 370 | Maggie Hodgson
up to come home for the ceremony. He had left a community that suffered from huge amounts of addiction and came home to a community of people who were largely sober and moving forward and were welcoming. They had gone through a healing process of getting treatment for the majority of the people abusing alcohol and drugs, gambling, and dealing with trauma long before the residential school settlement was on the table. When the Elders came into the hall for their welcome home ceremony, their grandchildren were yelling, “Welcome home Grandma!” Welcome home Grandpa!” “Welcome home Mom, Dad, and Uncle!” Tears were flowing down the faces of the former students and family members. However, they understood that the commemoration ceremony was not necessarily closure for many people. It was one more step in the process leading toward balance. This community had a public inquiry on residential schools. This was long before the ADR process was fully developed. The community funded and recorded its own “Public Inquiry” into residential schools. It was set up to ensure that the old people’s experience would be recorded prior to their death. This was the only community that chose to host its own inquiry with a judge, a therapist/healer, and a respected leader in their region of Canada as their commissioners. Ceremony was an intricate part of the inquiry. A community-based justice process was initiated to address the intergenerational impacts of community violence. Community-based violence had never been dealt with because people did not want community members to go to jail. A protocol was developed that had the support of the attorney general, the RCMP, and the community. They provided therapy for intergenerational sexual abuse after there was enough sobriety to deal with living relationships. Some of their community members were charged with sexual abuse, and the community supported them to get the therapy they needed. Community members took responsibility for community change. This process was underway long before residential school issues came to the forefront. Ceremony and treatment were integral to the process of community change. Activities expanded to include awareness of addiction to gambling. They clearly understood that the key treatment issue for gamblers is unresolved grief. A number of victims and their extended families participated in a reconciliation process with a priest who had abused them. They attended a ceremony, which also dealt with all of the priest’s victims who had died. They did this through a tobacco ceremony, pipe ceremony, and a sweat lodge ceremony. The priest attended with his therapist and the former students’ therapists. The process was ceremony from beginning to end From Truth to Reconciliation | 371
- 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 and 10: to the Aboriginal Working Caucus’
- Page 11: usiness people and others resulted
- 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
were so devastating to this family and how they have taken the responsibility<br />
to restore ritual, ceremony, belonging, and compassion in their hearts.<br />
Long-Term Community Investment in Wellness: A Case Example<br />
In another community, a woman took her compensation and paid off her<br />
car, helped her son with the cost of a couple of courses to upgrade his marks,<br />
paid off her credit cards, and invested the balance of the money into an<br />
RRSP. She has accessed years of therapy to assist her in dealing with the<br />
criminal charges she laid against the person she had been abused by. She<br />
had a five-year civil court battle in order to reach a settlement on the abuse<br />
she suffered. Her family is involved in learning about and participating in<br />
ceremony and attends church with a focus of maintaining their addictionsfree<br />
lifestyle. She is a former leader of her community and maintains her<br />
leadership through informal role modelling in lifestyle choices. She is a postsecondary<br />
graduate. She obtained her post-secondary education as the court<br />
processes were going on.<br />
She participated in a community reconciliation ceremony with other<br />
Survivors of abuse suffered at the hands of a member of a religious order. It<br />
was a very difficult process because all the people did not accept the concept<br />
of community-based reconciliation ceremonies, and there were many bitter<br />
people there, including some of the victims of abuse. However, for some of<br />
the people, the ceremony was one more step toward healing. Not everybody<br />
was in the same place in terms of forgiving.<br />
She has participated in community commemoration ceremonies that include<br />
Survivors who have settled their claims, family members, IRSRC staff who<br />
offered apologies on behalf of Canada, and representatives from the RCMP,<br />
the church entity, surrounding municipalities, local service agencies, and<br />
non-Aboriginal neighbours. They held a feast, a tobacco-burning ceremony,<br />
and a grieving ceremony in memory of family members who died in the<br />
schools or passed on since being in the school. Daily sweat lodges were<br />
available during their hearings. They had a balloon ceremony where they<br />
released a balloon that had their residential school number on it, and they let<br />
the balloon with the number go into the wind to be carried away. They had<br />
all of this along with a community dance with former students who played<br />
in the residential school band entertaining. One man who was a big-looking<br />
cowboy with big shoulders, big belt buckle, and a big hat said to himself when<br />
he released his balloon, “If I never get a penny out of this it will have been<br />
worth it to go through this today!”<br />
One gentleman, who had chosen not to return to the community after his<br />
school experience, lived in the inner city of Vancouver. They went to pick him<br />
370 | <strong>Maggie</strong> <strong>Hodgson</strong>
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