Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth
Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth
Maggie Hodgson, a member of the Nadleh Whuten Carrier First Nation, works locally, nationally, and internationally on justice and healing initiatives. She was the founder and host for the first “Healing Our Spirit Worldwide” gathering held in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1992. The gathering attracted more than three thousand participants from around the world. Maggie spearheaded the successful national campaign, “Keep the Circle Strong, National Addictions Awareness Week,” which has grown to involve fifteen hundred communities and seven hundred thousand people. She is co-founder and national co-chair of Canada’s National Day of Healing and Reconciliation, celebrated each year on May 26th as part of an international movement that began in Australia. Maggie has also served as an advisor to the World Health Organization on addictions prevention. Among her many awards for work in community development are the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, United Nations Community Development Award, Canadian Public Health Community Development Award, Alberta Aboriginal Role Model Award, and Alberta Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Commission Award of Excellence. She has two honorary doctorates: one conferred by the University of Alberta and a second by St. Paul’s University in Ottawa. From 1982 to 1997, she served as chief executive officer at the Nechi Institute. In “Reconciliation: A Spiritual Process,” Maggie addresses the pivotal role of connecting or reconnecting with spirituality in promoting healing and reconciliation. Ironically, it was the combination of laws forbidding participation in ceremonies and the imposition of a residential school system that stripped individuals of their spirituality in the first place: this is at the root of the need for healing today. Maggie recounts how Aboriginal people have taken the initiative to reclaim their spiritual practices and to engage in the hard work of healing. She returns again and again to the words of Abe Burnstick, one of her teachers, who promoted the moral high road of personal choice: “It’s up to you,” Elder Burnstick reminds us. She recounts two stories of Survivors, now Elders, who received compensation for their years in residential school and how they used the money to support ongoing healing. By following these stories, we learn that money can be used for good ends, but it is the lifelong work involved in healing the spirit that leads to true reconciliation. This article is imbued with lessons if we care to look for them. 360 360 | |
Reconciliation: A Spiritual Process “It is up to you!” Elder Abe Burnstick Reconciliation is a Western concept that describes a process of bringing one’s spirit to a place of peace. The long-term goal of reconciliation is to prepare ourselves for the time we go to the other side in peace. Peace is a state of spirit. We get there through hard work on our part or a willingness to ask the Creator to help us find peace in our hearts. The process of reconciliation is embodied in our mind, flesh, spirit, and attitude. We either choose to stay in pain and in anger or we are willing to do the work to effect change for ourselves. This does not necessarily mean the person or the government or the church that hurt us has to be sorry before we come to a place of peace. Coming to a place of peace and setting our spirits free from pain is a longterm process for most people and communities. Finding that place in our spirits is a lifelong journey. The reward for doing our work is being a people of hope, spirit, and commitment. We do this to ensure that our grandchildren will not have to live with our spiritual, emotional pain. Many former residential school students experienced trauma from being disconnected from their family. Those who have moved forward understand that in order to heal from our pain we have to speak our truth and take responsibility for change. We have chosen to reverse the central pillars of the intent of residential schools and surrounding legislation that drove a spike into the hearts of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit peoples. The chilling language surrounding the “Indian question” clearly defined the legislators’ intent, which was to assimilate Aboriginal peoples by outlawing traditional ceremonies, removing children from families, and cutting off access to language and sense of identity. In 1920, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott told Parliament that the object of assimilation was to continue “until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question.” 1 One cannot separate residential schools from those policies because they decreed that our children should not live with their parents and should not have access to ceremony while they were being trained to believe our cultural beliefs and ceremonies were of the devil. When the Canadian government declared illegal the practice of Native ceremonies such as the Potlatch and the Sun Dance, the result was a focused attack on the spirit of our peoples. It was a genocidal attack on our spirit that would impact up to five generations (or one hundred years) of our peoples From Truth to Reconciliation | 361
- Page 1: Maggie Hodgson From From Truth Trut
- 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 and 14: up to come home for the ceremony. H
- Page 15 and 16: Things became heated and I said to
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- Page 19: 12 Kishk Anaquot Health Research (2
Reconciliation: A Spiritual Process<br />
“It is up to you!” Elder Abe Burnstick<br />
Reconciliation is a Western concept that describes a process of bringing one’s<br />
spirit to a place of peace. The long-term goal of reconciliation is to prepare<br />
ourselves for the time we go to the other side in peace. Peace is a state of<br />
spirit. We get there through hard work on our part or a willingness to ask the<br />
Creator to help us find peace in our hearts. The process of reconciliation is<br />
embodied in our mind, flesh, spirit, and attitude. We either choose to stay<br />
in pain and in anger or we are willing to do the work to effect change for<br />
ourselves. This does not necessarily mean the person or the government or<br />
the church that hurt us has to be sorry before we come to a place of peace.<br />
Coming to a place of peace and setting our spirits free from pain is a longterm<br />
process for most people and communities. Finding that place in our<br />
spirits is a lifelong journey. The reward for doing our work is being a people of<br />
hope, spirit, and commitment. We do this to ensure that our grandchildren<br />
will not have to live with our spiritual, emotional pain.<br />
Many former residential school students experienced trauma from being<br />
disconnected from their family. Those who have moved forward understand<br />
that in order to heal from our pain we have to speak our truth and take<br />
responsibility for change. We have chosen to reverse the central pillars of<br />
the intent of residential schools and surrounding legislation that drove a<br />
spike into the hearts of First Nation, Métis, and Inuit peoples. The chilling<br />
language surrounding the “Indian question” clearly defined the legislators’<br />
intent, which was to assimilate Aboriginal peoples by outlawing traditional<br />
ceremonies, removing children from families, and cutting off access to<br />
language and sense of identity. In 1920, Deputy Superintendent General of<br />
Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott told Parliament that the object of<br />
assimilation was to continue “until there is not a single Indian in Canada that<br />
has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question.” 1<br />
One cannot separate residential schools from those policies because they<br />
decreed that our children should not live with their parents and should not<br />
have access to ceremony while they were being trained to believe our cultural<br />
beliefs and ceremonies were of the devil.<br />
When the Canadian government declared illegal the practice of Native<br />
ceremonies such as the Potlatch and the Sun Dance, the result was a focused<br />
attack on the spirit of our peoples. It was a genocidal attack on our spirit that<br />
would impact up to five generations (or one hundred years) of our peoples<br />
From <strong>Truth</strong> to Reconciliation | 361
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