For many of those who attended the Truth and Reconciliation public hearings at Maht Mahs Gym March 12, ritual cleansing has been an important part of their healing process.
Photos from today's hearings at: http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-hearings-march-12
Following the introductions at the Monday morning session, the audience was encouraged that, if they felt moved to tears, to allow their tissues to be collected by one of the red-shirted mental health support workers. The tissues would then be burned in a special ceremony next door in the Tseshaht Longhouse under the supervision of Ahousaht elder Marie Samuel.
Seated at the fire inside the longhouse, Samuel said ceremonies such as the burning of tears flow from ancient and traditional practices. But it was only one of the ceremonies to take place around the fire-pit during the hearings.
“Our ancestors used to do a lot of cleansing in the outdoors–in the ocean, in the mountains. Everybody had a way to pray to the Creator to balance our life,” Samuel said. “After the banning of the potlatch and our ceremonies, a lot of people used to do the ceremonies at home, in secret.”
The rituals we know today are based on those traditional practices that were preserved in the face of government suppression. Generations later, even governments now realize the importance of tradition and culture in healing from trauma or addiction.
“I’ve been in this field of work for 17 years,” Samuel said. “In 1993-1994, I went to training in Nanaimo to become a counsellor. We learned the Western way and the cultural way to do counseling.”
Samuel began her career at the Tsow Tun Le Lum Treatment Centre in Lantzville, then spent five years with the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council, travelling the North and Central regions as a residential school support worker, until a car accident on the Bamfield Road in 2000 left her unable to work. When she got back on her feet, Samuel spent a few years as a family counsellor at the Kakawis centre in Tofino, until the commuting got to be too much.
“Then I went back to Tsow Tun Le Lum, until I retired a few years ago,” Samuel said. “But after I retired, I became a member of their Cultural Support Team. We are now supporting all the people that go through the hearings.”
The Tsow Tun Le Lum Cultural Support Team has 25 members, and will deploy a team to each of the four community hearing sessions on Vancouver Island.
“This is my first event. Next month I’ll be travelling to Victoria for the regional event,” Samuel said.
For the Port Alberni event, Samuel brought her own washing-of-tears bowl, which was made for her in 1995. The winged and carved bowl contains sprigs of cedar and is filled with water drawn and blessed from a river, or an approved source, Samuel explained.
“There is a ceremony of washing the face–the washing of tears,” she said. “It feels good when you wash your tears.”
The washing of tears is followed by a cleansing ceremony in which the subject is brushed with cedar boughs to the accompaniment of prayer and drumming.
“It’s about letting go of the negative stuff and taking in the good, positive virtues we have,” Samuel said.
The first person to come in for cleansing was Tim Sutherland. With his son Levi as a witness, he carefully gathered a handful of legal documents, crumpled them into individual balls and fed them into the flames.
“I’m burning the last bunch of papers I had from my lawyer, denying my [settlement] claim,” Sutherland said. “I’m burning it forever–it’s history. From now on, I’m on a healing journey.”
Samuel, assisted by Jacqui Brown, also of Tsow Tun Le Lum, helped Sutherland through the washing of tears ceremony. Dave Frank and John Gomez then performed the cleansing ceremony.
Sutherland stood in front of the fire pit, while Frank, accompanying himself on a drum, invoked the spirit of the Creator. Circling ritually, Gomez brushed Sutherland down with cedar boughs, periodically flicking the boughs to the ground or into the fire, to cast out the negative energy. Eyes closed, Sutherland released his tensions in a series of unconscious low groans and coughs.
Later, Frank himself received cleansing from Gomez. Brown, a member of Chemainus First Nation, said that was part of the process.
“When you do cleansing, you pick things up, so you need to be cleansed of them,” she said.
