Work on the NWT Trauma Healing Lodge is progressing very well. We are so excited because the feasibility study and business plan are finally finished, except for some minor tinkering. Woohoo! 

The feasibility study is based on the lodge operating out of the old treatment centre on the Hay River Reserve after the building is renovated and is no longer needed to serve as their band office.

We have also come up with a name. We want to call our centre the Endacho Healing Lodge. Endacho means eagle in Slavey, so Eagle Healing Lodge. We chose a Slavey word for eagle because Slavey is spoken in close to half of the communities in the NWT. 

The lodge is going to help people deal with their traumas. And donSA国际影视传媒檛 forget, trauma is a major cause of addiction to drugs and alcohol. Many people drink and do drugs to help them deal with the effects of trauma. 

As we all know, people have to go south for addictions or trauma treatment programs. The problem is addictions treatment often does not resolve the root causes of substance use, which, in many cases, is trauma.

And good news! People will only have to be sober for 35 days before coming to the lodge. When we made presentations to Indigenous government assemblies, we thought people would have to be sober for six to 12 months to think well enough to work on their traumas. But we found out 35 days is good. Woohoo!

People will now be able to go to the trauma healing lodge right after going to addictions treatment. It would be a form of aftercare after treatment. Healing peopleSA国际影视传媒檚 traumas would make it easier for them to stay sober after addictions treatment. 

Another big development is that the NWTSA国际影视传媒檚 legislative assembly recently set SA国际影视传媒渁ccess to healthcare and addressing the effects of traumaSA国际影视传媒� as one of its official priorities. All right!

Info on traumas  

So, what are traumas that Endacho Healing Lodge will help us with? A traumatic event is a shocking, scary or dangerous experience that can affect us emotionally and physically. The events can be ongoing or a series of things happening.

Shocking events include when there is a party with yelling, screaming and fighting. The people there could all be affected, including the children and babies in the home. The kids may not seem to be affected, but it affects their ability to learn and how they act until they deal with the traumas.

It includes seeing or being in an accident. Or even coming upon a crash site and seeing deceased or injured people. It includes being sexually assaulted while awake or asleep, being robbed, physically attacked or assaulted, screamed at, bullied, picked on or frightened. 

People can also be traumatized from being verbally or emotionally abused, being neglected as a child, spiritual or religious abuse, a sudden or violent death in the family or seeing community or school violence.

DonSA国际影视传媒檛 forget that many of these things happened to kids in residential schools, and, for over 60 years, the vast majority of Aboriginal people in the NWT were forced to go to residential schools.

A very recent trauma happened to close to 70 percent of our population SA国际影视传媒� those who had to be evacuated last summer. That is a huge trauma. Many people were afraid the same thing would happen this summer. My brother and I talked about how happy we were that we did not have to evacuate this year.

Lodge highlights 

The Endacho Healing Lodge will be operated under a not-for-profit organization with its board. It will offer a bed-based treatment program that will treat trauma and support physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. 

It will provide holistic trauma healing services to a maximum of 195 Northern Indigenous people a year, and up to 24 clients at any one time. 

Clients will come for six- to nine-week programs for culturally relevant healing, which will provide an otherwise non-existent option for trauma healing within a residential program in the NWT. 

Guiding principles of the lodge

The trauma healing lodge will operate under guiding principles that include:

-Trauma stems from residential school experiences, colonization and other factors and creates ongoing intergenerational impacts for Indigenous people and communities 

-People continue to face trauma throughout life. Without healing from trauma, it is difficult to be free of addictions and achieve well-being. NWT Indigenous people should be able to stay in their home territory to access residential treatment. 

-All Indigenous people in the NWT, regardless of background and income, should be able to access healing. Individuals have the capacity to heal from trauma with the right supports and services. 

-All Northern Indigenous people should feel welcomed and respected. The lodge programs will address their diverse healing needs. It is important to work in partnership to build on the strengths of communities and existing systems. Healing is a journey that occurs over the lifetime of individuals and over generations for communities. 

-Indigenous culture is at the heart of the lodge and connection to the land is fundamental to healing. The holistic Indigenous healing approach connects mind, body, spirit, and emotion. Western healing, including psycho-educational methods, provides complementary programming. Both are valuable and necessary. 

-For people to heal from trauma, they must feel physically and emotionally safe to participate fully in the programs. 

One final thought: the lodge has a lot of support. So far, we have received letters of support from almost every Indigenous regional government, and both the federal and territorial governments are assisting with our preliminary work.

With all of this support, we know the Endacho Healing Lodge will be a success.