The Alberni Athletic Hall was filled with delights on Oct. 23 and 24 as Nuu-chah-nulth members soaked up all the offerings at the 2024 Health-Ability Fair.
Spots for free haircuts, massages, reflexology and mini manicures filled up quickly and after digesting a hearty fish soup and fish sandwich lunch, attendees spent the afternoon laughing and learning about inner strength with Indigenous comedy hypnotist Scott Ward.
“We need to reprogram our mind with positive suggestions. You have to program your mind for success, and this is called neuro-linguistic programming. Our minds are like computers. Each and every day it gets stronger and stronger,” Ward said.
“Sometimes you have to fake it until you make it,” he continued. “When I said I was going to be the world’s first Indigenous hypnotist, I had to believe I was a hypnotist before even hypnotizing the first person.”
Ward has helped hundreds of people quit smoking and shared his message of empowerment with over 400 First Nations communities.
During his mentalist act, Ward performed a series of extraordinary feats like mind-reading. At the end of his act, he asked a volunteer from the audience, Alice George, to think of a “deep question” and write it down on a piece of paper.
Shocking the crowd, Ward guessed George’s question correctly – “How do people heal from residential schools?”
George, a residential school survivor who is 40 years sober, took to the mic and addressed her own question.
“It takes a lifetime to heal. I hope our People will heal and I hope the government will let go of control of us because they still are. It’s sad. Our People deserve to be ourselves and we would be so much greater,” said George.
“How do you take your power back?” Ward asked George. “The key is don’t give your power away and take control of your power.”
“There are so many answers, and you will get hundreds of answers from many survivors, but I think what you said was right on,” he added. “It’s a lifelong healing that needs to take place.”
Andrea Yaulthmuk (Amos-Baker) of the Hesquiaht and Squamish First Nations is a former student of the old Christie Residential School and a cancer survivor. She attended the Health-Ability Fair with her daughter, Veronica, who has autism and ADHD.
Twenty-four-year-old Veronica is “mostly happy and doesn’t know how to hold a grudge. She loves her culture,” says Yaulthmuk, who is her main caregiver.
She would like to see the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council create “our own version of Community Living” that supports adults living with developmental disabilities.
“Where do the kids go when they age out of care? The sharks of society would be gunning for Veronica without a caregiver,” Yaulthmuk told the Ha-shilth-sa.
