Good afternoon. Bonjour. Tansi.
With great respect I approach this opportunity to appear before the honourable members of this committee. The work of this committee is vital, and I feel privileged to contribute to your study.
I am the executive director of Willow Cree Healing Lodge, a Correctional Service Canada-operated healing lodge for indigenous offenders. I am a member of the Beardy's & Okemasis' Cree Nation on Treaty 6 territory, the indigenous community in which Willow Cree Healing Lodge is situated.
My comments today will centre on my experience working in a men's healing lodge facility for nearly 15 years, and the contributions that healing lodges collectively provide toward the mandate of indigenous corrections.
One of the CSC's key priorities is to provide effective, culturally appropriate interventions and reintegration support for first nations, Métis, and Inuit offenders. Healing lodges are a fundamental element of delivering on this priority as they provide culturally focused interventions, programming, and services. Healing lodges are minimum or multi-level facilities, which can be operated by CSC in co-operation with an indigenous community or run by the indigenous community under section 81 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
The purpose of a healing lodge is to aid indigenous offenders in their successful reintegration by using traditional healing methods, specifically holistic and culturally appropriate programming. The first CSC healing lodge to operate in Canada, beginning in 1995, was the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge for Aboriginal Women on the Nekaneet First Nation in Saskatchewan. This healing lodge paved the way for other indigenous communities to embark on a journey that would revolutionize how the Canadian corrections system engages indigenous communities.
Commencing operations in 2004, Willow Cree Healing Lodge is the most recent CSC-operated healing lodge. CSC entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Beardy's & Okemasis' Cree Nation to ensure that the community provides guidance, support, and assistance to the healing lodge. I meet regularly with a board of directors to ensure that the management and operation of the healing lodge accomplishes its mandate within a restorative model of justice. We ensure respect for the cultural and spiritual vision, values, and traditions of the indigenous community. The healing lodge engages the local Beardy's & Okemasis' Elders Council and the Citizen Advisory Committee to ensure community input, collaboration, and consultation.
Healing lodges occupy a fundamental role in providing indigenous spiritual services through access to indigenous elders. Emphasis is placed on spiritual leadership. Staff and community members act as role models. Programs are delivered in a context of community interaction, and focus on preparing an offender for his or her eventual release. Elder involvement in the delivery of the correctional programs is fundamental as they contribute culturally relevant teachings and ceremonies.
It has been my pleasure to work with the passionate correctional professionals in healing lodges dedicated to the vision of healing. Many offenders who come to the women's and men's healing lodges are seeking a path forward. They come with the dream of creating a better life for themselves. They come hoping for personal transformation and healing from the ravaging impact of personal trauma, and the way that trauma has played out in their lives.
The healing journey from the indigenous world view will challenge you spiritually, emotionally, physically, and mentally. The healing journey requires honesty, humility, and courage. It is a journey where those things that torment the soul are confronted with the spirit of a warrior to restore wellness, heal relationships, rebuild one's sense of dignity, and create a healthy path moving forward.
Healing lodges are intended to be places of transformative power as indigenous ceremonies provide an outlet for cultural and spiritual renewal. The healing lodge aspires to achieve the spirit of wahkohtowin, a Cree spiritual law that encourages all living things to come together in a spirit of kinship. Wahkohtowin means “everything is related” and identifies the sacred obligations we have to one another, recognizing the social history experienced by indigenous peoples disrupted the roles, values, and traditions of the indigenous family. We call a resident of Willow Cree Healing Lodge a nicisan, an indigenous word from the Cree people meaning brother or relative. This reference signifies the healing lodge commitment to restore the kinship ties to the community for each nicisan, to ignite their sense of belonging to the greater purpose and to support their effort to overcome the stigma that comes with incarceration.
During the last five years, Willow Cree Healing Lodge has been privileged to collaborate with our CSC partners, the Beardy's & Okemasis' Cree Nation, the local town of Duck Lake, and community stakeholders on a worthwhile initiative.
In 2013, Willow Cree Healing Lodge entered into a partnership with the first nations and Habitat for Humanity in order to provide training and meaningful work release to the offenders. The offenders provided the labour to construct five Habitat for Humanity homes, one per year, in the community of Duck Lake, Saskatchewan.
The offenders participated in a construction worker preparation certificate program offered through a community college. They received on-the-job training during temporary absences to the construction site and were mentored by a journeyperson carpenter.
Willow Cree Healing Lodge recently completed the fifth home and witnessed each home awarded to a deserving and grateful family in need. The spiritual principle of kinship has become more integrated into the lives of the offenders who participated in this initiative, and it was an integral part of the offenders' personal transformative process as they offered their time, energy, and skill to a benevolent endeavour. I witnessed indigenous and non-indigenous people, CSC offenders, and community citizens working side by side toward a common goal as they helped families in need.
The example I provide is just one that illustrates the many ways that healing lodges strive to achieve the spirit of wahkohtowin, to honour the vision of healing, and to support the successful reintegration of indigenous offenders. The healing lodges are full of potential and are an essential component of fostering healthy relationships and a constructive dialogue with indigenous communities.
I thank you, and I welcome any questions you may have.