What three things make a healthy person/individual? What three things make a healthy community? What three things make healthy land?
These are some of the questions Lhoosk’uz Dené Nation community members were asked to answer Feb. 22 as the Walk One Way Together Lhoosk’uz Health and Wellness Strategy kicked off with a full-day workshop and youth event at the Native Friendship Centre.
Elaine Alec, who is from the Okanagan and Shuswap nations and is a partner with Alderhill Planning Inc., is facilitating the work, with her son and daughter-in-law.
In Quesnel, K.A.S.P., an award-winning hip hop artist who has done work with youth across Canada, was also part of the Walk One Way Together Health and Wellness Kick Off Event, giving a presentation to the youth in the evening.
Alderhill Planning is an Indigenous-owned and operated company that does planning in Indigenous communities, using an approach that’s grounded in four principles — mentoring communities, supporting each community’s unique vision of sustainable governance and community development, using our past to live well in the future, and creating healthy and productive relationships.
“One of the very first things we do is ask everyone ‘what is in our heart?’ said Alec. “It acknowledges every single person comes to the circle with experiences, and each of us is human, and our experiences and emotions can affect the way we talk to each other. We’re often afraid to talk about what we feel for fear of being judged.”
Alec and her team will be working with the Lhoosk’uz community to develop a Health and Wellness Strategy over the next five months, and in introducing the work, she spoke about how they approach planning through the Enowkinwixw process, which is based on thorough discussion and conflict resolution.
There are four circles in the centre — the inner one represents the self, then the family, then the community, and finally the land. Outside of these four circles are four posts, one for each of the food chiefs —Chief Black Bear, Chief Saskatoon Berry, Chief Spring Salmon and Chief Bitterroot, who represent the perspectives of tradition, action, innovation and relationship. The Enowkinwixw process unifies the wisdom of these perspectives into a holistic vision and plan for the community.
“It acknowledges that some [perspectives] are kind of the same, and some are polar opposite, and sets up protocols on how we are going to be together,” explained Alec. “What our stories tell us is each and every one of these perspectives are important, and we can’t make decisions until we have heard from all these perspectives. Some people are forward-thinking, and some people are reactive. Once we recognize that in community, we can start honouring people and stop arguing.”
Alec says one of the protocols that is key to their planning work is active listening and witnessing.
“It takes so much discipline,” she said. “Part of the protocol is to make a commitment to listen to every single person in the circle and do it in a way that you are not judgmental and not thinking of how you will debate them. It is a practice of listening to everyone with an open heart and an open mind, to listen and take what they are saying as information. When you are able to do that, it creates wisdom. It is an act of healing because a lot of people feel like they haven’t been listened to and they are not important.”
Over the next five months, there will be community sessions with everybody in the community, as well as other sessions for Elders, women, men and youth.
“We want to invite as many youth as possible, because we will be mentoring the youth and will hopefully create a team of youth who can carry this forward,” said Alec.
As they work, they will ask questions about what people would change to make their family and community healthier, for example, and start prioritizing certain things, such as mental health, cultural programming, access to services, or chronic disease. Alec’s process is very focused on hearing from many different people and honouring everyone’s contributions.
“As we work with the community, some things will start floating to the top,” said Alec. “Each person is going to have so many different things to contribute. At the end, we will pull together a Health and Wellness Strategy to help direct what the community wants. We’re going to talk to as many people as we can so we can hear as many voices as possible.”
As part of the Walk One Way Together Lhoosk’uz Health and Wellness Strategy, youth are being invited to take part in a video challenge over the next five months where they capture what they think community and leadership needs to know to make their community healthy.
The youth video challenge was introduced during the Feb. 22 Kick Off Event, and over the next five months, the youth team will be provided with everything they need to get started, as well as self-esteem workshops, video making tips and ideas about how to plan the video out.
READ MORE: Ulkatcho, Lhoosk’uz Dené sign agreements in support of Blackwater Mine project
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