Fort William First Nation acknowledges National Addiction Awareness Week

By Rick Garrick

FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — A group of community speakers shared their lived experiences with addictions and recovery during Fort William’s National Addiction Awareness Week gathering on Nov. 27 at the Fort William First Nation Community Centre.

“We had community speakers come and speak to their lived experience and their journey through recovery as well as their journey when they were using substances,” says Ashley Harju, mental health and addiction coordinator at Fort William. “They gave some education, awareness and some advocacy for our community and we had EMS come out to do a naloxone demonstration, so individuals were able to go up to do a naloxone training of their own — they could practice administering it so it’s not the very first time they do it is when a person is potentially overdosing.”

Tommy says his story was about a journey of resilience and healing, overcoming trauma, and reclaiming his life.

“It’s not easy to talk about these things but it’s important because by sharing our stories, we can help heal each other,” Tommy says. “I stand before you not just as a survivor, but as someone who has walked through the darkness and found life. My story’s about overcoming challenges that many Indigenous people face, growing up in the foster care system, struggling with addiction, and confronting the impact of intergenerational trauma, but it’s also about finding strength in my culture, my community, and my identity as an Anishinabe man.”

Meagan began her story by acknowledging the strength it takes to get sober and to be sober.

“I want to acknowledge all the people’s journeys, those who are currently in it, those who are where I am at, and those that didn’t make it,” Meagan says. “This addictions piece for our people is very serious and it is still ripping our people apart. When I talk about my sobriety, I always talk about all of us carrying two things at once — we all carry the pain and suffering of our ancestors, but we also carry the power of our ancestors. And those lock hold against us and it’s always a matter of which one is closest to your chest – do you carry their pain or do you carry their power?”

Jamie began his story by sharing a prayer, noting that he recently celebrated four years of being sober.

“It wasn’t the meetings that kept me sober, it was the Elders, the fire,” Jamie says. “This time around in my sobriety, I ended up going through the culture road, I started to help out with fire-keeping with different organizations, which was great, it kept me sober. I was able to help a lot of our community members out here even with fire-keeping, I was on call for fire-keeping. There’s been a lot of great things in my recovery, and there’s days I struggled.”

Milton shared about the importance of culture and learning from the Elders during his story.

“It’s so neat to see the younger generation, younger people really embracing sobriety and reconnecting with their culture,” Milton says. “I really hope that a lot of you go and talk it up with your Elders, sit in and listen with them. That’s how we learn, you take that knowledge from your Elders and then you pass it on to your children.”

Milton also thanked everyone for being in attendance at the National Addiction Awareness Week gathering.

“I really appreciate it,” Milton says. “This is what helps keep me sober is just sharing my struggles, my childhood tribulations, and I think at the end of the day I think everyone can relate to that.”