A trip to the hospital is typically one fraught with emotion, so every effort to make that visit more comfortable can mean the world of difference.
At the Sturgeon Community Hospital, and many others around Alberta, something as simple as having a teepee on site can make a big difference for aboriginal patients and visitors.
“It’s a good thing. You don’t feel like a stranger around here,” said Christmas Aslin, who stopped at the teepee last Tuesday while visiting a friend with a newborn baby. “It’s really sweet. I love it.”
This is exactly its intended effect, according to aboriginal health co-ordinator Laura Auger. While she couldn’t say how long there have been teepees available as part of Alberta Health Services Aboriginal Health Program, they have been around since she started in her position in 2007.
She said while she doesn’t track how many people use the teepee in the six-month period from May to September, on any given day you’re likely to see people making use of the space. Recently, Auger met with a woman who was undergoing a difficult medical procedure, and being forced to grapple with her own mortality.
“We were sitting out here talking about the issue, and just finding a way to navigate through the difficulty,” she said. “That’s sort of what happens, typically.”
Often people will hold ceremonies relevant to them or burn sweetgrass in the teepee. Auger spoke with a young man who had been at the hospital, and took comfort in the ability to go out to the teepee, pour some water on the ground as an offering and say a prayer in a culturally traditional way.
Further to providing a healing space on an individual level, having a teepee on site of a large provincially funded facility is a symbolic gesture toward healing the long-standing pain caused by several centuries of often-abusive policies toward aboriginal people in Canada. Having such a strong symbol of aboriginal culture helps to continue that conversation.
“There’s a lot of history that needs to be told,” Auger said. “At first it might create conflict, but ultimately it builds relationships.”
For Monica Cook, like many other aboriginal people in Alberta, the wounds from past government policies including forced attendance at residential schools still run in her family.
She explained her mother, who attended a residential school, often felt shame with respect to teaching her children about Cree language and culture. To see a traditional aboriginal symbol displayed so prominently is a sign attitudes about aboriginal culture are improving.
“For so many years it was not accepted. For so many years,” she said. “And now it’s accepted. It’s part of our culture, and our families and children can learn without being ashamed of who we are.”
And while the predominant cultural background of aboriginals in Alberta is Cree, Blackfoot and/or Sioux, the teepee is a symbol of home and family that holds meaning from coast to coast; Aslin, whose ancestry is Mohawk, was as happy to be at the teepee as Cook, whose background is Cree.
Auger said providing a representation of cultures that existed long before Europeans arrived on this continent helps to recognize the true diversity of this territory.
“To expand it and include other nations who live here, recognizing that the position and place of the indigenous people far precedes European settlement here, is significant,” she said.
The teepee is set to come down for the season Sept. 10.
~~~
“For so many years it was not accepted. For so many years,” Monica Cook said. “And now it’s accepted. It’s part of our culture, and our families and children can learn without being ashamed of who we are.”
“There’s a lot of history that needs to be told,” Auger said. “At first it might create conflict, but ultimately it builds relationships.”
Although Aslin hails from Eastern Canada, claiming Miqmaq and Mohawk descent
While it can be tempting to think of aboriginal cultures in Canada as being ubiquitous,
Laura Auger, the Aboriginal Health Coordinator at the Sturgeon Hospital
There are teachings that go along with the structure, done for a few years roughly once per year.
“There are different teachings from the different nations – and there are many nations here.”
An area in Edmonton known as Payhunan (sp), and Payhunan menas “the waiting plakce.”
Man y different tribes congregated there, as a trading place, St. A as one of the earlier communities.
“There’s a lot of history that needs to be told,” she said. “At first it might create conflict, but ultimately it builds relationships.”
FAMILIES THAT COME HERE?
“The other day I was out here with a woman from the local community, sitting out here with her and her husband
“She was going through a difficult medical procedure, and having to deal with her mortality in a sense,” she said. “We were sititng out here talking about the issue, and just finding a way to navigate through the difficulty. That’s sort of what happens, typically.”
“Another time we had a young man in ICU, and he had family coming from Eastern Canada, from Western Canada, and locally, because of the different nations he represents.”
“They all came here, and when I learned about him, his mother and grandmother were here in the teepee so I came to say hello, and tried to say in the different languages….”
“I say a greeting in Sioux the best I can, like a Cree,” she said with a laugh. “I greeted them and they were in there, and I told them
“This is for you to use: it’s our home,” she said. “People can use it during the day and be comfortable here.”
“All I ask is that you clean up after….”
TRADITIONAL CEREMONIES? Burnign sweetgrass?
“I try to do that once a week when it’s up, otherwise we use the chapel downstairs.”
Families will often come burn some sweetgrass themselves.
“At another site, we had two young people who were passing, and one of the young fellows who was a relative told us at some gathering he had that when he was going through that particular incident, he was in emerg and saw the teepee outside, and just went out there and poured some water ou because he needed to say a prayer, talk, cry, scream, yell.
“In that way he was able to use it and it brought him comfort,” she said.
FAMILIES GIVING OFFERINGS? Food or water.
Feast that goes on once per year, a culminating feast at Alberta Hospital in Edmonton on Sept. 16.
HOW LONG HAS AHS HAD THESE TEEPEES?
Auger, not sure but she started in 2007.
“It was here well before I came,” she said. “I think what happened is some of the work going on ….
Work in corrections service sort of spilled over, and is now serving in the health area.
Importance of recognizing diversity of culture/tactics.
Idea spreading from corrections to health, government services recognizing the importance of an individual’s culture in terms of healing
“I think it’s a recognition of the indigenous people, their position, their place in the territory in this area,” she said.
7:30 CHRIS INTERRUPTS TO TAKE A PHOTO.
Christmas Aslin – Mohawk and MicMac (2)
Other one, said Metis. (1) Monica Cook
“For so many years it was not accepted. For so many years,” Cook said. “And now it’s accepted. It’s part of our culture, and our families and children can learn without being ashamed of who we are.”
“It shows that the bridges are coming together,” Aslin said. “It’s not like we’re trash, you know?”
REsidnetial schools as a big symbol of what went wrong, the teepee as a symbol of what’s now going right.
“My grandma was in a school, and my dad talked about it. It’s something rarely talked about because of the shame. And they were all abused in one way or another.”
Cook: “My mother was taught not to teach her children how to speak her own language,” she said. “I’m Cree and I learned a little bit of (the language), but even now she’s reluctant to teach the language and it’s out of pure shame.”
“It’s a good thing,” Aslin said. “You don’t feel like a stranger around here.”
Cook: here because her daughter was having a baby
Is taken down through the winter motnhs to keep it protectec and in decent shaope.
“It’s good, especially… no I better shut up.”
“It’s a good thing. You don’t feel like a stranger around here,” said Christmas Aslin, who stopped at the teepee while visiting a friend with a newborn baby. “It’s really sweet. I love it.”
“I just wanted to have a cigarette out by our place, right?”
BACK TO LAURA AT 18:30
She’s cree, or a cree/French mix, but wanted to tell
Anecdote: Met one of her own relatives here not long ago, an elderly lady, at the teepee.
Was telling a bit about her dad’s family. Auger men came this way, in the James Bay area, met a Huron woman, and it turns out there’s Huron blood in her veins, something to learn about herself.
“It was interesting to learn about that – here, of all places.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS TRADITIONAL CULTURE HERE AT THE HOSPITAL/HEALING?
“It’s pretty significant. The teepee I think brings with it a whole perspective of the culture, but also the history behind it,” she said. “I think that’s missing for not only our people, but for your people.”
“To expand it and include other nations who live here, recognizing that the position and place of the Indegenous people far precedes European settlement here. It’s significant.”
“It looks like it’s just a teepee, but there’s a whole history there.”
On any given day, may find aboriginal people at the hospital using the teepee for something as quick as a smoke break, but more
Auger doesn’t track how many people come there.
20-foot teepee.
“I think city hall should have one,” she said.
“If people are interested, the door is open for them to come find out about it within Alberta Health Services,” she said. There are aboriginal health coordinators at most major AHS sites around the province, and in some of the smaller towns.
