Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth

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along with reconciliation words and actions. One of the Survivors used his compensation money to repair the church roof and to pay his bills off. This community pioneered and participated in the most focused research project on residential school impacts in Canada. They did this to take one more step toward taking responsibility. They brought the residential trauma program into their community for their Elders and also to facilitate family participation in the program. They started having annual fasting ceremonies which young people attend with their families. They hosted a sweat lodge every day during their ADR pilot project, and they had the rosary in the church every night for those people who still attended church. They continue to have an annual celebration of sobriety and wellness. They have annual fasting ceremonies which the elderly, children, and families participate in. This helps to strengthen relationships, and it helps with their learning about taking responsibility. They have an annual “Unity Ride,” which has the participation of community members, cowboys, non-Aboriginal neighbours, government staff, children, RCMP, and Survivors. This event lasts a couple of days. It is part of moving forward in healing from the residential school experience. The lady, spoken of earlier, and her community have made excellent choices along the road to wellness. There is a growing understanding of what reconciliation is on a daily basis. This is a good example of a community working together to deal with residential school issues through personal, family, and community reconciliation and healing. The process has encompassed traditional ceremony, Western therapy, alcohol and drug treatment, trauma treatment, gambling treatment, and a lot of hard work collectively. Challenges and Opportunities for Reconciliation There is reconciliation for historic acts that have affected our people, and there are the current day-to-day events that have historic beginnings. I work on interchange with Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada as a Special Advisor to the Deputy Minister. I also provide advice on pending policy where I am asked to participate. My community is my advisor. When the adjudicator selection process was initially being developed, there was a policy that said adjudicators had to have five-plus years experience in adjudicating. This did not sit well with me. I believed that policy set the bar to omit the majority of Aboriginal lawyers because few, if any, Aboriginal lawyers ever sit on adjudication boards, as these are often politically appointed positions. I was having a difficult discussion with another policy person about this requirement. My argument was that even judges do not have to have five years’ previous experience in being a judge before they are appointed. 372 | Maggie Hodgson
Things became heated and I said to her, “You would have made a good Indian Agent in the 1950s!” On thinking about my cruel statement later, I realized how I had abused her as I and many of our people had been abused historically. In my traditional ceremony of the Potlatch, when we wrong people, we have to gift them, along with all of our clan members who have to gift them as well. It is intended to teach about respect, and it also teaches that abuse not only hurts the person but also the collective. I had affected her spirit so, at the next staff meeting, I brought a blanket to give to her and I asked her to forgive me for being so unkind with my words. Coming from a different culture, she thought it was not necessary for me to give her a gift since I had apologized. In fact, I had not apologized in the Western way of doing things, I had acknowledged that my words had affected her spirit. The gift was to acknowledge the spiritual effect of the unkindness. While I do not live within my region where Potlatches are held, I bring my potlatch with me and I work at ensuring that I acknowledge it when I am disrespectful of my co-workers. You know, when you have to buy enough blankets and quilts, it brings to mind to keep yourself in a more respectful way and to treat others with the respect that you expect from them. Large systems do not encourage people to take responsibility. When the upset takes place within a large forum, most often, if people apologize, they do it in a small corner where no one else can hear them. Taking responsibility within ceremony has taught me to embrace the teachings of those important ceremonies that were outlawed by Canada at one time. It has also taught me that I need to teach my grandchildren with my words. Often in the Western Christian world when people make a poor choice that affects other people, they refer to it as sin. In our community, the old people refer to it as “Mistake.” Mistake is less laden with guilt and more conducive to owning responsibility for one’s actions. This attitudinal choice of “Mistake” is more of a traditional thought than the Western world view where blame and sin comes from. I was at a meeting with a residential school Survivors’ group when a person from a political group started to attack me and my co-worker. We were all Aboriginal. He indicated that the only Aboriginal people who worked at IRSRC were apple Indians who sold out our people. He did this with hatred in his eyes, with a loud tone to his voice, and with his finger pointing up and down to emphasize his anger. His words burned into my spirit until my spirit bled with tears that did not show themselves in my eyes. I replied that I had worked on the residential school issue since 1985 when I was trying to get Health Canada to understand why there needed to be more resources to deal with residential school trauma. I had worked on the St. George’s trial From Truth to Reconciliation | 373
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 and 12: usiness people and others resulted
Page 13: up to come home for the ceremony. H
Page 17 and 18: to strengthen understanding and rec
Page 19: 12 Kishk Anaquot Health Research (2

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