WOUNDS OF THE PAST
Faith ‘ healed my heart’
It was the smallest room in the crowded house, but when 19-yearold Holly Fortier stepped inside and closed the door to be alone it would provide the setting for the biggest moment of her young life.
She’d spent her youth alternating between feeling pride and shame of her Indigenous background. There’d been the insults she’d endured at school, where kids joked she would scalp them and a teacher called her a wagon-burner; the words sometimes seemed rooted in her soul.
Fortier had been raised by her mom to be proud of her Cree/Dene culture, but the anger those taunts had caused and the everyday casual racism she lived through in the early 1980s — while in Calgary and attending Mount Royal College — left their mark on the impressionable young woman.
It might still be so to this day, were it not for that fateful trip to the bathroom — the smallest room in the house, where she’d gone to be alone with her thoughts and where, for the first time, she prayed for help and God was delivered into her life.
“We had this house guest and I could hear him praying and singing in the morning,” Fortier recalls. “He walked around with such peace and kindness and I thought, ‘I want whatever he has’ and so he shared it with me.
“He was a Christian and it just felt the perfect fit. He just explained to me all about the Bible and I thought that the scriptures were so strong and so relevant to our daily life,” Fortier says. “So, (on) this day at Christmas, when the house was so busy, I went into the bathroom where no one would interrupt and I just said: ‘I don’t know where to go, but God I invite you into my heart and I pray that you shine all that light onto the dark places in my life.’
“Instantly, it was as though things changed and my beautiful journey began,” she says.
Today, 35 years later, Fortier is a successful businesswoman with three grown, beautiful children — Billie, Jesse and Rees — and the same number of granddaughters. She travels across Canada giving lectures and holding workshops to spread awareness of Indigenous issues to a cross-section of companies, organizations individuals.
“When I became a Christian, I realized that God is colour blind ... He is for all nations and it really healed my heart,” she says.
There was a lot to heal. Her mother was taken from her family in the Fort MacKay region of Northern Alberta and placed in a residential school hundreds of miles away. She could never return as a child and, with the infamous pass laws in effect, her family was prevented from leaving the reserve to ever visit. A dozen years later, when government funding for schooling ended, Fortier’s mom was told to leave the school and given a one-way ticket to Edmonton.
Fortier knows that the effects of those dark days linger across Canada, but step-by-step she sees that things are changing. No longer must Indigenous youngsters feel ashamed of their culture. Instead, they can embrace it and be proud. Accepting Christ into her own life helped in her own personal struggle to move forward.
Through her company, Nisto Consulting — in which she discusses and promotes Indigenous awareness — she has spoken with thousands of Canadians, sharing a story that many fully hear for the first time because of her presentations.
“So many have said ‘I never knew that’ and they respond with such tenderness. This is heavy subject matter, but afterwards they want to change their attitude, both professionally and personally, and break down barriers; it is so healing for me as well to share this story with them.
“I am an Indigenous person telling our story, but with no anger or bitterness and I would totally attribute that to my faith. I feel God has healed me from residual hurt or anger,” she says, noting spirituality is important to almost all Indigenous people.
“We are making a comeback in Canada. I am really optimistic and have so much hope for our people. You will see a healthier and happier nation where we are co-existing. I am proud of my First Nation heritage and I am also proud to be Canadian,” she adds.
These days, her life is full of hope and Fortier looks forward to the future. But she will never forget that moment back in 1982: “Everything led me to the point of going into that bathroom and accepting Jesus into my heart.”