Fort William First Nation hold inaugural Overdose Awareness Day walk
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM — Fort William First Nation held its first International Overdose Awareness Day Walk on Aug. 31 to raise awareness of drug overdoses and to support loved ones that have been lost.
“It’s very important to get information and awareness around to the community, plus we do have an overdose and opioid crisis so it’s very important to show our respects along the way and really support one another within our community,” says Ashley Harju, addictions and wellness worker at Fort William. “Anyone can join, we encourage people to wear purple, we have purple balloons, we all made up some signs.”
Allie-Joe Pelletier, addictions and wellness worker at Fort William, also participated in the walk, which began at the Fort William Band Office and proceeded along Mission Road to the Fort William First Nation Arena and back along Anemki Drive to the Fort William Band Office.
“It’s important that we raise awareness for the overdoses and the high number of people that we have lost due to this crisis we are in right now,” Pelletier says. “We’ve got to get out there and raise awareness of this.”
Pelletier says there was a “lot of positive feedback” from people in the community about the walk, including comments about the importance of remembering family and friends who were lost from overdoses.
“And we’d like them to be remembered as we walk today,” Pelletier says.
Fort William Elder Rita Fenton, who did a smudge ceremony and hand drum song to open the walk, says it was important to participate because many people are struggling with their addictions.
“Every community, every First Nation community has their issues with the addictions,” Elder Fenton says. “I’m just trying to support with the walk, just to bring some awareness and to let people know that we care about them and we’re here for them.”
International Overdose Awareness Day, the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdoses, was initiated in 2001 to remember without stigma those who have died and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind.
Fort William is also holding Wellness Wednesdays Yoga on the Mountain sessions for citizens on Anemki Wajiw that are led by an instructor from The Bodymind Centre in Thunder Bay to help participants to release and let go of everyday stress.
“It’s a very relaxing and intuitive experience,” Harju says. “We do it outside so we have the mountain view, we have all of the sounds from the nature — the birds, the animals — everything coming together so we really get to tap into the land and really be thankful for everything that we have around us.”
Harju says the yoga sessions usually begin with breathing exercises and then progress to different poses, including poses for people who have arthritis and other issues.
“The practice of yoga is really great for one’s mental health,” Harju says. “It helps with self-care, so all of those really important things that we need to start working on as a person, individually and even as all of my clients and [citizens] that we interact with on a daily basis. Right now we’ve had anywhere between six to 10 people — the programs are kind of slower at this moment because of COVID-19. We’re just getting back into outdoor activities, with the restrictions 10 people is our max at the moment.”
Pelletier says they also hold men’s and women’s healing circle groups in the community, noting that information is available on the Fort William website, fwfn.com, and Facebook page.