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Inuit from all regions flock to healing conference

“This group is progressing well”

RICK MAYOH

”It’s gone way beyond my expectations,” said Pam Stellick, Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s director of counselling services, of a conference organized on just three weeks notice. Barbara Sevigny, on right, is a trauma and addictions therapist at Tungasuvvingat. (FILE PHOTO)

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Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s first Mamisarniq (Healing) Conference on April 5 - 6 attracted 45 workers from Nunavut, Nunavik, the Northwest Territories, Labrador, Montreal and Ottawa to a hotel in downtown Ottawa.

Organized by Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s Mamisarvik Healing Centre on just three weeks notice, when funding became available from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the enthusiastic gathering quickly generated the close-knit feel of a cohesive team.

Calls to continue the conference annually were unanimous.

“I’m so high, I feel like I’m on Cloud Nine,” said Mary Alainga-Fraser of Oxford Station, Ont., who works with Inuit in the Ontario corrections system. Her sentiment was shared by many participants, who often feel isolated while carrying the heavy weight of their challenging work.

The conference’s objectives included bringing together workers from the northern regions and the South for the first time to share Inuit-specific approaches to healing and to discuss needs and strategies for intervention. Other goals were to examine and develop Inuit human resources in mental health, addictions and healing and to provide an opportunity for workers to network and build mutual support.

“It’s gone way beyond my expectations,” said Pam Stellick, Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s director of counselling services.

More than 180 clients have gained access to the services of her Inuit-specific residential treatment program since it opened in Ottawa three years ago, and 64 of them have been men. “I’d hoped people would learn some things, connect, network. But as workers, we’re also healing, and this really was like a group healing journey. This is an opportunity for us to have a voice.”

The purpose of their trip was reinforced for Bonnie Almon and Cecilia Hogaluk of Cambridge Bay. Almon, program manager at Community Centre Kitikmeot, and Hogaluk, a wellness counsellor there, said they visited the young victim of a devastating, alcohol-related mishap in an Edmonton hospital en route to the conference.

Once in Ottawa, they enjoyed meeting the conference elder, Meeka Arnakaq of Pangnirtung, an Arctic College educator who also works with Tungasuvvingat Inuit. Arnakaq was an overwhelming favourite with participants.

“Only my smile is in English,” she grinned, while presenting her workshop on the “Strength of Inuit and Traditional Healing Methods” in Inuktitut. Arnakaq evoked a marvelous series of analogies while examining Inuit culture. She compared Inuit pain to an iceberg, most of it still hidden below the surface.

“A man has to be proud,” she said. “I see men who are very low. They are ashamed of who they are. People who were born in the 1980s are not aware of the things that were snatched from us.

“If the sled is toppled over, it cannot go,” she said. “The man is underneath. This is how Inuit men are today. They are stuck. Their responsibilities have been taken away. Who is going to stand them up? We’ve found different ways of healing women, but not for men. The qamotik has to stand up, the dogs have to start running.”

Arnakaq and Reepa Evic-Carleton, a Tungasuvvingat Inuit trauma and addictions therapist originally from Pangnirtung, facilitated a powerful healing circle as part of the conference.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a healing circle like that,” said Susan Peffer of Inuvik, manager of the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation’s Early Childhood Program. “I’m going to start one in my home. We also need treatment and drop-in centres back home.”

Eva Lapage of Kuujjuaq became executive director of the Isuarsivik Treatment Centre just a month ago. She soaked up information like a sponge, as her agency plans to build a new, 22-bed, family-oriented facility and eventually expand its staff from 15 to 50.

“We’ve gone through a lot of drama in Kuujjuaq,” she said. “You have to deal with the roots.”

Lapage said her son committed suicide when he was 20 years old.

“I asked ‘Why don’t I just numb that terrible feeling (with alcohol or drugs)?’” she said. “Then I asked myself ‘What about afterwards? I will have to face it again.’ I said ‘I’ll feel it instead.’”

During another workshop, Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s treatment coordinator, Ginette Chouinard, gave participants a highly moving inside look at her agency’s trauma and addictions program.

“You have to have a lot of Kleenex,” she advised.

Chouinard reviewed seven stages of a trauma and addictions healing journey with the courageous help of one of her clients. Now that client is helping other women to learn to love themselves.

“You are a grand, victorious warrior and we love you,” said Chouinard to her client, when they emerged from their emotional rollercoaster ride to a room brimming with heartfelt applause.

Evic-Carleton and Barbara Sevigny, a Tungasuvvingat trauma and addictions therapist originally from Iqaluit, demonstrated the healing power that understanding the past can have, while sharing a workshop entitled Inuit History as a Tool for Trauma and Addiction.

“Although the pieces may be broken, we can move forward,” said Sevigny. “It’s wonderful when people start looking and say ‘Where is the pain coming from?’ A lot of people went hungry, died of starvation, died from the cold and even died from just being in so much pain because of the impact of residential schools, relocation, dog slaughter.

“A lot of people have experienced layers of trauma and are using substances to numb their pain, going to harder and harder drugs,” she said. “There are a lot of Inuit who have post-traumatic stress disorder. Just giving them a name for what they are going through helps. There is a way out after experiencing something traumatic. It’s a process.”

Both therapists also illustrated the healing power of life stories and the use of selective self-disclosure. Sevigny described the process of her traumatic journey that resulted from finding her murdered sister. Evic-Carleton talked about her bewildering and lasting experience with relocation.

“I believe because of the attention on residential schools, a lot of the relocation hasn’t really been looked at yet,” said Evic-Carleton. “People left everything they had and never went back. There has been a lot of loss, a lot of grief. If the impacts are not dealt with, they carry on to the next generation. These are abnormal events that happen to us and the symptoms and feelings we have are normal.”

Catherine Dallas, an ITK policy analyst, delivered the first public presentation of Alianait (Expressions of Joy), the Inuit Mental Wellness Task Group, which includes Inuit, federal, provincial and territorial representatives. The group will create and develop Inuit-specific approaches for the national Mental Awareness Action Plan for First Nations and Inuit.

For the final workshop, Stellick led the conference through an examination of needs and strategies for front-line workers.

“You don’t get rich in this work,” she said. “You get rich in your heart.”

Participants came up with information on what they are already doing well and on what they need to further improve their performance. The findings are being compiled and will be returned to the conference-goers.

“I’m just grateful to be here, I’m hearing things I’ve never heard before,” said Annie Pisuktie, an outreach worker with the Montreal Native Friendship Centre.

Nancy Kisa, a social service worker in Kimmirut, voiced a growing awareness in the field: “It’s very important that, as a social worker who takes care of other people, I have to take care of myself first.”

People achieved another important conference goal with great ease and that was simply to have fun.

Even the hotel staff was drawn to the sound of that best of medicines — uproarious laughter — during lunchtime games. Students from the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program provided throat-singing and dancing entertainment during a closing feast at Tungasuvvingat Inuit.

Meeka Arnakaq was clearly impressed with what she saw at the Mamisarniq Conference.

“This group is progressing well.”

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