Nowh Guna’ Tseh / Our Way: HARC takes part in the CSFS Carrier Culture Training

In September the Health Arts Research Centre staff had the opportunity to take part in the Carrier Sekani Family Services Carrier Culture Training – Nowh Guna’ Tseh. Led by Elders and healthcare professionals Sarah Hein and Barby Skaling in collaboration with CSFS Director Marlaena Mann, this training was both deeply informative and connected to the history of colonization and injustice in the Prince George and surrounding area.

Including personal stories from survivor’s time in LeJac residential school, teachings on cultural protocol specific to the Carrier Sekani region and basic Carrier language phrases, this training was not only educational but left space for participants to reflect on and cultivate a sense of how they might bring allyship and decolonization into their practice as public health professionals. A theatre based exercise on the first afternoon of the training hit home for several of the participants: we were invited to embody specific people who had a significant impact on shaping colonization and assimilation through residential schools, the church and “Indian hospitals”  in the Prince George area as well as Indigenous members of the community who had shown resistance. The training finished with a “teaching” potluck and dancing.

For more information about the content of this training please see CSFS newsletter posting. Thank you to Carrier Sekani Family Services for such a meaningful experience, we will be integrating these teachings into our work – and lives – as members of the Prince George community. Snachailya!