Konnichiwa, BooShoo, HelloMy name is Lydia Sherman. I live in Sioux Lookout. Northof us are 32 small communities, all fly-in communities
except two. I am Indigenous/First Nations. I am fluent in
my language Oji-Cree.
Growing up, my dad was a fisherman, in the summer anda trapper in the winter. We went camping, in the spring
time, all summer and part of the fall. We ate fish, wild
food- moose meat, rabbits, ducks, goose etc. and various
berries. We moved from campsite to campsite as wefollowed the movements of the wild life including thefish. My mom cooked on the wood stove or made fireoutside to cook, to bake bannock and tea, perked coffee
We ate mostly blueberries and raspberries.
My dad was also a hunter and we lived from the land.
We lived in tents for the summer, spring and fall months.
We lived off the land, water and nature. We weresurrounded by nature, trees and lakes. We loved nature.
It was healing and healthy to be around nature.
Sometime in my early 20's. I finished a 2-year businesscourse in college. I had no interest in business. Although
my dad wanted me to take business, my heart was not inbusiness. My heart was with my people. I wanted to help
people and be with them.
In my late teens and early 20's, I lost a brother and very
close friend both tragically. There was no counselling andsupport available back then. I did find a place, a refuge
to go to I called it. People at that place took me inoccasionally and listened. This lead me in my early 20's
to know I wanted to be in the helping field. I wanted toreach out to people and help them - adults, children,
young people, families and older people.
I've worked in the Social Work/Mental Health field,
thirty-five plus years inclusive. In the last five years, I
have been working with a First Nations Organization as a
Mental Health Counsellor with a Mental Wellness Team.
In the early 1980's, I started working with mental healthat the old Zone Hospital (Joyce showed you a picture ofit). Initially, there were 2 non-Indigenous counsellors
doing this work. Sometime in the early 80's, theyrecognized the need for First Nations counsellors, whoknew their culture and language. We started with 2
counsellors and expanded to four or six First Nations
counsellors. Some of us travelled and flew to muchsmaller communities monthly. We travelled in a small
four- or six-seater planes to the cold North.

En.everybodywiki.com

Upon arrival in the small northern community, wesometimes stayed in a small one room cabin with norunning water or electricity. Eventually, there wasrunning water and electricity in the little cabins.

Photo taken by Joyce Timpson

We would stay up there for one week to work.
Sometimes, we travelled with a psychiatrist and workedwith him or her. Sometimes a nurse worked in thecommunity sometimes not.
Right from the beginning of working in this field, we weretrained in various mental health aspects and basic
counselling skills, by the Mental Health clinical staff andby psychiatrists. We also worked with 3 Elders, 2 female
and one male. The Elders that worked alongside with usprovided support and training from the cultural aspect.
An Elder that I worked with said that our work is like the“wind". He said something like this: We cannot see thewind. Sometimes, we hear and see the effects of thewind. He said the wind can be calm and destructive. Healso said that the wind can be a guide. He said when wework and see people, we cannot see their emotions orfeelings. We don't know what they are carrying insidetheir heart. There could be a lot of sadness, confusion,anxiety in their life. He said listen and be patient. This istheir time, not your time. Sometimes it will take time.
That's our job to find out what is bothering them. What,
where do they want find help in. He said, "Walk thewalk." of the person you are working with. Guide them inthe "Path", they are walking on. He also said we can help
them by talking to them and vice versa, but they might
have other physical needs like having no water, orneeding help with wood, which we cannot overlook.
So, in the early years of my work, I looked at all theneeds of the individual. I worked with what I called, the,"Sphere." It involves the, Physical, Emotions,
Psychological and Spiritual of the individual. Indigenous
social workers now call this a Medicine Wheel. I had notheard the name before and just knew that was how I wasto approach the person.

As time went on, when in the helping field. I travelled tothe Northern communities to work. Rather than working
in an office or "box" as some people called it (which felt
isolating for some people), I took the advantage of seeing
and taking people out to nature. As, I grew up withnature as a young child. It appeared to be moretherapeutic to the client, to go out to nature and sit bythe shore by the lake, or the banks of the river watching
the busy beaver, going back and forth building his home,
listening to the sound of nature, like small water falls,
watching slow-moving rapids, was more therapeutic forthe individual. It enhanced their physical, emotional andspiritual strength. It appeared each time it, the process ofsharing and healing was taking place.
As many people have difficulty expressing their emotions
as a result of Residential Schools, I also use non-verbal
methods of expressing emotions such as Art Therapy orhaving the person make a Collage of their life. It wasanother way of helping and forming communication withindividuals, who needed assistance in communication bywriting and drawing. It slowly helped the individuals inmoving on with counselling. Art Therapy benefited someindividuals. Under the guidance of an Art Therapist, welearned what some of the drawings meant. For example,
if the picture is all dark, it might mean the person wasdepressed. This picture shows a child drawing TeePees
with an airplane flying over, shows the differences incultures.

Some of the other things we use is the Collage.
It is cutting and using pictures and letters from usedmagazines or old news papers, and pasting and glueing
them on paper. It was hands on activity and wastherapeutic for the individual (s) helping them to focus ina less threatening way than talking.
Both Art Therapy and Collage are therapeutic. They help
people process their feelings and thoughts
Here is an example of a worker in a training session
about Collages doing his own life story. One thing webelieve is that people must participate in their own
healing before attempting to heal others.

Photo taken by Joyce Timpson

Joyce mentioned the historical things that happened to
our Indigenous People and the Intergenerational Trauma.
Here are examples of how this affected my family and mypeople:
In the 1940s and 1950s Tuberculosis invaded thecommunities in the north. A lot of people had T.B. andwere taken from their homes to T.B. sanitariums invarious parts of Ontario and Canada. Both children,
young adults and adults. Families were separated forlong periods of time. My dad had tuberculosis. He wasgone away and in the sanitarium for a total of five years
before he came home. So, I was without a father for thattime. My oldest, Auntie and youngest Auntie were also inthe sanitarium, in the 50's. My oldest, Auntie, nevercame back and we did not know where she was buried.

Her gravesite was found sometime in the late 90's by her
much older children. My youngest, Auntie also nevercame back, not until in the middle 1970's, to visit her
homeland, for a short visit.
Residential Schools happened from the middle of 1800's
until the middle of 1990's. A lot of families wereseparated, not by choice before the 1970s. Children as
young as 5 years old were taken away from their families
sometimes for many years. Children suffered physical,
emotional and sexual abuse. To this day a lot of families
are still impacted by the Residential Schools, causing,"Intergenerational Trauma." We have to take this into
account when we are counselling people to look at whatsomeone’s parents might have been through.
I, myself, never went to Residential School. My two
younger sisters, one brother went to, Residential School.
Those were the lonely years for me and my family when
my siblings went to Residential School.
In the 60's, many Indigenous children from infants ortoddlers up to the age of 16 were removed from theirfamilies by child welfare authorities. This was called the“Sixties Scoop” because it felt like a scoop. Just like withmental health counselling, non-Indigenous workers didnot understand how to work with our people to findother alternatives. These children were placed in foster
and adoptive homes across Canada, the United Statesand even across the oceans usually with non-Indigenousfamilies. Many of these children had parents who hadgone to residential school and were suffering from its
affects. Many of them now suffer from the loss of theircultural and feel lost in the white world. This is anotherexample of the Intergenerational effects of the schools.
All of the above examples, disrupted family unity, loss oflanguage, culture and loss of land. This caused
loneliness, separation, anxiety, depression to say theleast and name a few.
Today, our Indigenous people are suffering trauma andloss much of which originated from the impact of the,Residential School and loss of culture. Some cope byusing alcohol and drugs.
At the same time, our Indigenous People are resilientPeople. In the past we acknowledged our loss but kept
on moving as there were so many physical things to do tosurvive. Today, we are trying to return to some of thoseways. We are teaching our children land based activities,teaching them our culture and our language. We aretraining more people to be health care workers andsocial workers. More and more of our young people aregoing to college and university. We have taken control ofservices for us. First Nations are working with thegovernment to improve out quality of life. We are on ourHealing Journey.
Arigatou, Meegwitch (Oji Cree), Thank you
Lydia Sherman