Powerful Communities, Healthy Communities: A Twenty Year Journey of Healing and Wellness

From the Author's Introduction, no page number:

"Twenty years is a mere whisper in the histories of the First Peoples of Canada. It marks the time we see a new generation born and grow into adulthood and it is a period long enough for societal change to be felt. Twenty years ago it was the dream for positive societal change that framed the release of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples’ (RCAP) final report (1996). The Commissioners and those that supported their work, concluded that profound changes were required to repair the relationship between Canada and First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The starting point, they argued, “is recognition that Aboriginal people are not, as some Canadians seem to think, an inconsequential minority group with problems that need fixing and outmoded attitudes that need modernizing. They are unique political entities, whose place in Canada is unlike that of any other people.” (1996a) The Commission called for the entrenchment in daily Canadian life of the principles upon which the Constitution and the treaties were formed. At the outset of their work, the Commissioners asked: “What are the foundations of a fair and honourable relationship between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people of Canada?” Through talking and listening to Inuit, Métis and First Nations peoples, they sought to answer this question and in doing so, the Commissioners determined twenty years to be a reasonable time frame in which much of the collective work that needed to be done by Federal and provincial/territorial governments, First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples and Canadians generally, could be established or completed (1996a). The RCAP Commissioners believed that a conceptual shift driven by sincere commitment by governments, and hard work and perseverance by the entire country would bring about a renewed relationship between non-Indigenous Canadians and the First Peoples of this land.

A focus on healing and wellness in Indigenous communities and Indigenous led practices for addressing inter-generational trauma, addictions, and mental illness were central to the path forward described by the Commission (1996b). Twenty years later, our paper asks the following questions: How did this journey unfold for our people?; What can we learn from RCAP and the past twenty years about addressing mental health, healing, and reconciliation? How can the past twenty years inform the implementation of the Calls to Action (2015) of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in areas of mental health and healing? and, “What is our path today and what will it be for the next generation?

The following pages are an initial draft of a more comprehensive paper that our team will produce following the Winnipeg RCAP conference. In the draft presented here, we focus on the national influence of RCAP in areas of Indigenous mental health, wellness and healing. However, a fuller analysis that privileges the voices of Indigenous communities to tell their stories about the past twenty years is necessary to fully understand what has happened. In our consideration of the past twenty years, we highlight the role of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) and the Indigenous “healing movement,” as examples of Indigenous self determination in mental health, wellness and healing work. This report highlights the constant renegotiation that Indigenous peoples face with regards to their cultural and political identities through a "legal and economic context created for them by a non-Aboriginal government..."

This report also discusses intergenerational trauma as a result of colonization and the need for more better education on Indigenous/settler relations.