We Are IH: Elder invested in the future of his community

I have been off and on with Interior Health for quite a few years. I do openings for them and teach some of the nursing students cultural awareness. I believe that everyone should take this course because the general public is misinformed about natives being a drain on the public person. What they don’t understand is that first it belongs to us not to the government. They tried to eliminate us.  They tried to assimilate us and we’re still here. Before contact there was 10 times as much of us as there is now.  That’s how they tried to make us disappear - smallpox blankets took about 90 per cent of our people. That’s so horrible! That’s crazy! All for the greed! For the money, for the land and resources! The only thing that was in the way was us and they tried to eliminate us! They tried to assimilate us through residential school. I don’t even like that term because it’s not residential and it’s not school: it’s a concentration camp. They tortured you if you spoke your language ... and the reason I know these things [is that] I know a lot of people that are my age that have lived that experience. I never went to residential school and that was because of my dad. 

Reconciliation, everyone wants to jump on that word, but they have barely scratched the topic of truth because the government is still withholding names of the unmarked graves as well as the church. How can you say you’re sorry or reconcile if you didn’t even say or let the whole truth be known?
In Kamloops there was supposed to be 50 there but there was actually 215. Where did they all come from? All over the interior! The church has names for them - the kids and the babies – It just baffles me how inhumane society was at the time that they could kill babies and just dig a hole and throw them in the ground. All for the cause of greed and money. This was all mandated through the government they didn’t even consider us human until 2014. 

All of our training stems around healing and our community. My wife was the first generation in her family to go to high school and university. The three generations before her were in residential school so when we first started our program we developed our own curriculum and we have been doing it for 10 years and haven’t changed anything because it’s so raw. There are a lot of teachings in the program because a lot of people are taught that things are rainbow and sunshine, and their founding fathers carved and found Canada. We go in depth and conversation about this in the program.
 

Prejudice is alive and loud …  [staff] that are well established that run the hospital, they are used to their own ways and that’s just putting it mildly. I have seen both sides of the coin where natives are treated fairly and good, but I have also seen the other side of it where they’re mistreated and dismissed. Even with the doctors, two times in the last 10 years I’ve seen doctors go above and beyond their duties. One time this old relative was leaving us and wanted to smudge and the [Indigenous] patient navigator gave me a call said they need me to come in. The doctor said ‘You can come in. I closed off this section and removed the oxygen so you can do your ceremony,’ so I did it. The doctor made it so his wish came true when he was leaving us. I have also seen in the emergency room where natives are harshly dismissed. 

I was involved of the creation of the sacred space in Kelowna. The [Indigenous] patient navigator with Interior Health called me in and asked what is my wish list for the sacred space. I said we need water and a place where the smudge smoke can go outside and not affect the rest of the hospital, and had those conversations, so I had a hand in that as well.

The [Indigenous] patient navigator before … was really good. Every day she would seek out if you’re Aboriginal and ask if you want to talk or if you want to smudge or talk to an Elder. But I’ve also seen the negative experiences. 

There has to be respect above all! Everything revolves around respect! Nobody knows when an Elder is hurting - nobody knows with an Elder where that hurt is coming from except that Elder that’s hurting, They can’t be dismissed and told to just take a prescription and just suffer! Be more understanding [patient] and be more open with an Elder and that goes for any aboriginal patient! Sometimes [staff] they’re so stretched that they get on the borderline of being rude and dismissive. They still need to be respectful!

Always try to seek out an Elder, either to talk to or sometimes the Elder is seeking out someone to talk to. For me there are two kinds of Elders: the Elder that holds the knowledge and there are Elders that like to share. I believe I am one of those [sharing] Elders, because I know what its like to have nothing. I have been homeless on the streets, I know all about grief and loss, I was an orphan at 15 years old and I am not the man I am today without my past but I don’t dwell on the past - I’m not going that way. I’m going this way, moving forward. Talk to someone - it doesn’t have to be an Elder, it can be anyone that is seeking to talk or a smudge. If the patient can’t come out of the room, then I will use rose bush medicine to cleanse - it’s for your own protection. 

I want to promote our training programs because I believe that everyone should take it. It’s not to point fingers – it’s knowledge that the general public were mislead about us Native people. It’s a hard course but it is eye-opening also. There’s a threshold of knowing and not knowing but once you do know what are you going to do about it?