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Addictions awareness Dealing with a storm inside Jeanne Gagnon Northern News Services Published Monday, November 14, 2011
As a snow storm was raging in the community, facilitator Terry Garchinski explained to participants how to identify issues - such as grieving, trauma and abuse - they would like to deal with and comparing those with hunting on the land. "How do we deal with the storm outside of us, that's the real storm, like the snow ... and the wind, and how do we deal with the storm inside of us, like our emotions and our thoughts and our confusion when we are dealing with different issues," he said. The program is offered separately to males and females to give the women a chance to hunt and skin the animals themselves as the guys tend to dominate those activities, he added. The program involves two days of in-class activities and two days on the land. "I think for some it's life-changing. And for others, it's just good to be out on the land and to do this work because it's different than doing it in a building," said Garchinski. "That's why we do it in both places - for some it works better inside and for some it works better outside." Eight women participated in the most recent program. One of the women was 32-year-old Christina Maksagak, a Cambridge Bay resident. She said she wanted to participate again this year because she learned a lot on the land, such as how to cut up a caribou. "It's been going good. We talk about our healing, our experience, emotions and our loss," she said. "I hope we catch more caribou than last year." Garchinski said people already have everything they need inside them to do their healing. "There's great strength in connection to the ancestors and the traditional way of life," he said. "And by going out on the land and hunting, we're able to tap into that in some ways."
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