I do want to say how important our land-based healing over the past few years has been for the support of people who are battling not just the opioid crisis but also different forms of addiction. When I look at some of the successes.... There are individuals who have highlighted why they use opioids. You find those conversations when you're having those intimate moments of spiritual connection to the land and to other areas where there's reflection on life and the importance of taking a break from what is actually causing those memories to keep on flowing, and really celebrating the successes of where individuals are at.
There are individuals who have shared, “I've gone from 12 points to six points, and now I'm at one point of opioid use because of pain management.” When you start to celebrate those along the way, you see the impact. I've actually seen people move from those 12 points to six points to one point and be able to sustain not using opioids for the past 18 months.
I think it's those moments when you get to be a witness and a little bit of a champion and carer to someone, when someone believes that someone is going to be there consistently for them. I think this conversation is the way in which the federal government can fund directly services like this so that we can create the consistency that is very valid and important to this work.
There's also looking at different avenues of innovation. We use the term “innovation”, but that connection to community.... I just want to say this. When we're looking at indigenous people, we need to know where they're coming from.
The other thing I want to highlight is that I went into an institution, one of the prisons, and this person who was supporting that individual said, “This person is not interested in culture and doesn't want to connect.” I said, “Where is this person from?” And they're like, “They're not connecting to the elder who's here.” The person had the background of Cree, and the individual who was supporting the person was of a totally different background.
If we're not linking that knowledge and the communities together, the practices won't flow and that discussion doesn't become at ease. I would say those are successes when we make sure we're investing into the indigenous population and the partners who want to be able to do this frontline work. We're all impacted in different ways as to why we choose this work.
I want to say that land-based healing has brought a really powerful avenue to our work, and I know we're going to be able to show in those successes that it does work.
Thank you.