’60s Scoop: Helping women recover

Cowichan elder co-authors study on traditional ways

VANCOUVER — After recovering from the trauma of being separated from her family as part of the ’60s Scoop, Roberta Price has co-authored a study that applies the same traditional methods that helped her to other Indigenous women.

Price, who is an elder from the Coast Salish Snuneymuxw and Cowichan Nations, said finding her family as an adult and reading about the horrors of the ’60s Scoop in court documents brought her to a dark place.

But when a friend and former colleague got Price in touch with her own traditional elders, they took her under her wing and knew what she needed.

“I was so broken, so wounded, so beaten down in my spirit,” said Price, who is also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s family medicine department.

“Those elders, they are the ones who helped lift me up. … Learning about the culture — cultural teachings, stories, songs — really brought my strength out.”

Price and her co-authors applied a similar technique to Indigenous women recovering from the trauma of partner violence, in a study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

The study did not include a control group that received treatment without elder-led circles or cultural elements, and the results were self-reported.

However, the research suggests that the health of the women improved when the healing process integrated elder-led circles and other cultural elements.

The study from the University of British Columbia and Western University focused on nurses working with women individually over the course of six to eight months.

Their treatment included weekly circles or group activities led by an elder, which involved sharing personal stories and aspects of Indigenous culture through ceremonies, cultural teachings and traditional crafts.