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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Federal budget cuts have caused the Healing Drum Society to discontinue its intensive healing program for residential school survivors.

Yellowknifer Dawn Mangelana, originally from Tuk, says the Healing Drum Society's month-long healing program Embracing Our Human-nest Program has helped her cope with severe depression. The society is discontinuing the program due to federal funding cuts. - Laura Busch/NNSL photo

The last public month-long healing program, named Embracing Our Human-nest, offered by the society is ending today after treating roughly 1,000 clients.

The society is losing about $1 million in funding every year - roughly half of its budget - meaning it will no longer offer the program even though 200 hundred people remain on the waiting list.

Six jobs will be also be cut.

"It's going to severely limit our ability to help people heal," said Joe Pintarics, executive director of the Healing Drum Society.

Dawn Mangelana, who is part of the last program, said, "It really saddens me to hear that they won't be continuing workshops like this. People out there are reaching for help and it won't be available anymore ... it does help. I know for myself it helped me a lot."

The healing program is modelled around self-responsibility and aims to empower people to take charge of their lives, said Pintarics. The ultimate goal is to help clients achieve what he calls "dynamic peace."

"You accept what was done as what was done, and you learn to deal with that and make a commitment to yourself that you're never going to be in a position to let that happen to you again. And you move on," he said.

For Mangelana, being a part of this program has helped her regain control over her life.

"Before I had started four weeks ago, I was severely depressed to the point where I would just stay in bed and sleep. And, taking this program, I would wake up in the morning and be delighted to get to group. So, it got me out of bed and helped me find myself again."

The idea that residential schools are nothing more than a sad chapter in our past is obscene, said Pintarics.

"This is happening today, this is going on in front of our eyes," he said, pointing to First Nation Child and Family Services Society statistics that show more than three times the number of aboriginal children are within the child welfare system today than there were enrolled in residential schools at its peak.

Meanwhile, nine out of 10 federal inmates were raised within the social system.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's 2008 apology aside, Canada has never acknowledged that taking children away from their homes hurt future generations, said Pintarics.

"When are we going to wake up and say 'hey, we need to do something about this?'" he asked.

As part of its 2010 budget, the federal government announced it would no longer support the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation that funded more than 100 community-based support programs for residential school survivors and their families.

Instead, $199 million was given to Health Canada to support services for former residential school students and their families.

Pintarics questioned the effectiveness of this, given that there is no public oversight on how the money is spent.

Individual counselling and elder services will continue to be offered at the healing centre thanks to funding through Health Canada, but Mangelana said it is the group dynamic that helped her most throughout these workshops.

"I do one-on-one counselling as well ... being in a large group rather than a one-on-one counselling, I find that it helps for my healing. It has more of an impact, having a group together like this."

Before the program is shuttered forever, the Healing Drum Society will honour its commitment to provide two more programs, one at the North Slave Correctional Centre and another at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River.

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