Elders unite in the fight against alcohol abuse
Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services
Tsiigehtchic (Jan 29/01) - Alice Andre was the first person in Tsiigehtchic to quit drinking.
"Before (I went sober) everybody was drinking, the whole town," Andre told elders from the Mackenzie-Delta region who gathered in Inuvik last week to talk about how they've stayed sober.
Almost 100 elders from Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Tsiigehtchic, Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik crowded into Ingamo Hall for the Elders Sober Gathering.
Together, they counted 1,107 years and five months of sobriety.
"We're here to celebrate and honour the elders in the Mackenzie-Delta who either stayed sober or found sobriety and are keeping it and passing it on to others," said Jamie White, program coordinator for Ingamo Hall.
Rebecca Francis, an elder from Fort McPherson, hasn't put a drop of alcohol to her lips for 25 years.
She recalled her last drunken night. She was babysitting her three-year-old nephew and took him to a house party. Later that night she headed home in the cold, intoxicated, with the little child in her arms. She remembers trying to crawl over a snowbank on her hands and knees, but was unsuccessful.
"There wasn't a soul around. It was cold and he was really crying. I just sat there, I had a headache, and I told him 'don't cry, we'll go home.'"
"The next day I woke up, it was Nov. 29 and he was gone. That's when I said 'that's it! I quit!'"
Since Andre quit 22 years ago, many Tsiigehtchic residents have followed in her footsteps, including her son Herbert, husband Noel and Chief Peter Ross.
"It's a good life without a drink. It's nice, really nice," she said.
Andre sees the devastating effects of alcoholism in her community every day. She thinks that if the bootleggers and drug dealers were arrested, life would be much easier.
"I just wish they could get caught," she said.
And it doesn't help that there is nothing for young people to do in Tsiigehtchic besides drink and sometimes stir up trouble, said Andre.
"The gym is open, but not often. If they had a place to go, maybe we could get them to stop drinking."
Francis said that alcohol abuse in Fort McPherson is just as common as it is in Tsiigehtchic, with enough bootleggers to supply the community with as much alcohol as desired.
"For four, five, six years now the hamlet and the band have been saying they are going to do something about it - they're not doing anything about it!"
White respects elders who support others in their struggle to stop drinking. When they share their stories, it inspires younger generations and shows them that there is hope, she said.
"(This gathering) identifies the people in the communities that we can go to when we want to make changes in our lives ... it gives them someone to relate to, someone to talk to,"she said.
"People are sobering up and what looks good to us is we're breaking free from the cycle of addictions. People are choosing to live sober lifestyles now.
"This shows us that it's really happening out there. Now we have proof."
