‘A great example of reconciliation’

Spirit Walk lets Montrealers support Indigenous women’s healing process

Nakuset hadn’t even begun the sweat lodge ceremony and she was on the verge of fainting.

In a few minutes, she would subject herself to blistering heat in a dark, steamy tent full of strangers. But that wasn’t the source of her angst.

Nakuset — who was one of thousands of Indigenous children taken from her family during the Sixties Scoop — had been raised by white parents who taught her to resent her true heritage. To finally begin to embrace her Cree identity was a scary prospect.

“But then, when I went into the tent and immersed myself in it, something just clicked,” said Nakuset, executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. “It was like discovering this thing that had been missing my whole life.”

For five years, the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal has tried to pass along this experience to women in crisis. Each summer, clients and their children go on a wilderness retreat and spend time with a traditional healer to work through trauma they’ve survived.

But funding the trip is a challenge.

Since many of the women who partake in it are Residential School survivors or, like Nakuset, were displaced by the Sixties Scoop, these retreats were once covered by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. After federal funding for the foundation was slashed in 2014, Nakuset has had to raise money for the trip through private donations.

For the past four years, the shelter has hosted a Spirit Walk on Mount Royal to raise the $20,000 it needs for the healing retreat. To participate in the event — which takes place Saturday afternoon, starting at the Sir George-Étienne Cartier statue and ending at Beaver Lake — walkers collect pledges for the women’s shelter.

“Where the government has dropped the ball, the wider community has really stepped up for these women in need,” Nakuset said. “So many of the women, their experience with non-natives has been Residential School or being taken away from their families.

“So to see the non-Indigenous community chip in like this is a great example of reconciliation. That’s what this is all about.”

The Residential School experience is one of the factors that leads to instances of domestic violence in Indigenous couples, according to a 2003 study by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Survivors spent a childhood being beaten and abused in an effort to eradicate their language and culture.

Many internalized that brutality and it caused others to lash out at their loved ones.

The women who go on the healing retreat are given a chance to heal those wounds, unlearn those painful childhood lessons and regain a piece of the identity that was takenfromthem.

“The sweat lodge, it touched my spirit. It helped me to find my spirit and really learn how to love myself,” said Maina, a mother of two who attended an earlier retreat. “Ever since the retreat, I have started going to school, feeling like I have more worth.”

The identities of the women who use the shelter as well as the location of the retreat are confidential.

Beyond this particular event, one of the missions of the Native Women’s Shelter is to reconnect

When I went into the tent and immersed myself init,something just clicked. It was like discovering this thing that had been missing my whole life.

NAKUSET

women with the traditions of their home territories. Melanie Lefebvre, a Red River Métis woman who volunteers at the shelter, regularly cooks “country food” for women fleeing domestic abuse.

“There is certainly a sense of homesickness for some clients ... the women speak about foods they miss and don’t often have access to,” Lefebvre says. “I try to bring in traditional foods to the shelter when I can. I was able to score 200 pounds of deer meat from the Northfork Bison company a while back. I’ve brought in bison as well.

“I haven’t gotten my hands on seal or caribou yet, but I’m determined . ... I feel a sense of community there. It’s a real privilege to be involved.”

Nakuset says it’s this sense of community, fostered by volunteers and donors, that has kept the shelter running all these years.

“For these women to go from an environment where they are told they’re worthless to one where they ’re a part of a family that cares for them, it’s no small thing,” Nakuset said. “To have someone make you a nice warm meal that reminds of you of home, to have a support system, it’s huge.

“This healing retreat is about that community, it’s about making memories with the people who have embraced you for who you are. Most of the time, these women are fighting for their lives, they’re fighting for their families.

“Once a year, it’s nice to slow things down and it’s nice to know there’s a wider community willing to lend us a hand.”

The Spirit Walk begins at 2 p.m. Saturday by the Sir GeorgeÉtienne Cartier monument in Mount Royal park. To donate, visit raiseathon.ca/spiritwalk2018.