Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Mar 05/99) - Turning Point drug and alcohol counsellor Marjorie Bain walks toward a medicine wheel in the treatment centre's healing room, passing sheets of paper bearing positive words that she encourages residents and others to use.

Negative words are similarly on display for those in treatment to purge from their vocabularies. "Should," for example, is a shame word, Bain says, because it implies a standard for everyone to seek to achieve instead of an individual's aptitude.

"It was what our teachers told us in school -- what we should do," she says.

The 41-year-old has battled back from alcoholism and the realization that her first dream -- becoming a nurse -- was not something she was cut out for.

Social work is her knack and love, and on March 2 at Aurora College, she accepted both a degree and a certificate in social work from the University of Regina/Saskatchewan Indian Federated College.

"I know what people are going through because they've had the same experience as me," she says of her job where she has been providing drug and alcohol counselling at the Turning Point treatment centre every morning since she started Aug. 17, 1998.

"I try to get them to know themselves so they can get their power back. We go way back to find out where alcoholism started, and for native people it started generations ago."

She credits her adoptive mother, Elizabeth Blake, for being encouraging when she was growing up and when she expressed a desire to become a nurse.

When Bain failed nursing at college in Regina because of reckless drinking and gambling, she decided to make a change in her life and focus on helping others through social work instead.

As a student, she says she "felt I never learned enough. I wanted to learn two worlds -- the white man ways and the native ways."

What's the biggest difference between the two?

"One is domineering and one is trying to get their power back. For me it's learning all that stuff and being proud of who I am and not caring what other people think. We were under their thumb for so long and now we don't need to be," she says.

Outside of work, Bain enjoys going to many social events around Inuvik and she often brings her 11-year-old daughter, Florissa.

She also has a 17-year-old son, Tyler, who is in Fort McPherson where Bain was born and grew up.

"I grew up with an elder and that's where I learned most of my traditional values and skills I try to use today," she says.

"I don't speak the language, though I would like to."

Finally, as for the most satisfying part of the job, Bain smiles and says that though the feeling of helping people lead productive lives is reward enough, it is reassuring when people tell her what a good job she is doing.