CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS MAGAZINE
MOVEMENT AS MEDICINE A Journey of Healing LATERAL KINDNESS Become a Warrior of Positive Change STORIES OF TRIUMPH
Wellness and More Inside ISSUE 118 HOLISTIC HEALTH DISPLAY UNTIL MAR. 1, 2023
PM 43436539 PRINTED IN CANADA $8.99
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SINCE 2002
6 What Is a Lateral Kindness Warrior and How Can You Become One? Human Resource Professional Kent Brown Explains
CONTENTS
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ISSUE 118 HOLISTIC HEALTH
SAY MAGAZINE Volume 21, Issue 6 SAY Magazine is a bi-monthly publication that publishes six issues a year—one issue every eight weeks.
SAY Magazine assumes no responsibility for statements made by advertisers or in submitted material.
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Mailing Address: Kildonan Place, RPO Box 43084 Winnipeg, MB Canada R2C 5G7 E: info@saymag.com www.saymag.com Publishers: Dominick Blais and Kent Brown Editor-in-Chief: Danielle Vienneau editor@saymag.com Editorial Team: Sarah Ritchie sarah@saymag.com Theresa Peters theresa@saymag.com Art Director: Orli Gelfat - Orli G. Design Sales Team: Megan Henry megan@saymag.com Dominick Blais sales@saymag.com Website and Social Media Sphere Media Agency info@spheremediaagency.com
A Major Lifestyle Change and the Support for Indigenous Students at RRC Polytech Have Given Culinary Student Waylon McKay Roulette a New Outlook on his Future
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Printed in Canada
Cover Story: University Student Tréchelle Bunn is Promoting Healing for her Community by Encouraging Us All to Run for Those Who Never Got the Chance
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SAY Magazine acknowledges that we publish in Treaty One Territory, at the crossroads of the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Nations, and at the heart of the Métis Nation homeland. As a diverse team of both Indigenous and ally collaborators, we strive to embrace, embody and live the truth that we are all Treaty people. All our relations!
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18 Literature:
Teacher, Take Care
19 A Holistic View of Wellness 21 Restoring the Circle Self24 Indigenous Determination 26 A Holistic Way of Life Rise: 28 Grandmothers Reclaiming Space and Power
Our Differences 30 Music: Make Us Stronger while Living with 33 Succes Kidney Failure 34 Advertiser Index
Women Entrepreneurs: Restore the Mind and Soul with Catia Carter and Feel a Renewed Sense of Self with Nutrition and Fitness Specialist Britt Nygaard
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COVER STORY
Movement as Medicine SAY: How did you get involved in sports? Bunn: I was just three years old the first time my dad put me on skates. He built a rink in our backyard in Wampum and, ever since then, I fell in love with the game of hockey. Coming up on 20 years of playing hockey in March, it’s definitely been a critical part of my life, and it’s shaped me into who I am today. It’s also given me a platform to use my voice, share my story and bring awareness to different Indigenous issues. That is one of the things I’m most grateful to the sport for, is having the opportunity to talk about my family and my community.
Photo credit: University of Manitoba Bisons Photography
SAY: Tell us more about where you grew up. Bunn: Growing up I spent a lot of time in my home community of Birdtail Sioux Dakota Nation, especially during the summers with my Kunshi (grandmother) Pauline and my Unkan (grandfather) Terry who live there. It’s a really pretty First Nation, and right behind my grandparent’s house is a big valley and there’s a river running right through it. My cousins and I would spend a lot of time racing up and down the hills, having different competitions with each other to see who could make it up the fastest.
That also ties into my connection with sport and being active—it was just always a part of my life, my community and my family. SAY: How do you practise holistic health? Bunn: Movement for me is really important. It is a way to stay balanced and feel connected to my culture—that traditional way of life where Indigenous Peoples were always physically active, whether it was for dancing or ceremony or for hunting and gathering. I think sport as a whole has a way of
I’ve always lived by ‘movement as medicine.’ Physical activity and movement, whether that’s playing hockey or running up the hills behind my grandparent’s house, has been my way of staying physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually well, like using those teachings of the medicine wheel.
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Interview with
Tréchelle Bunn
bringing people together that is really powerful. I believe people want to move their bodies and do things in a good way. I organized a Healing Walk in July 2021, and then the Reconciliation Run in September, because walking and/or running is something that most people can do, and it really brings people together. I think holistic health is doing what is accessible to you—doing things in a good way and trusting yourself, your body and your instincts, and having that self-reflection time to determine what your body needs to be your best self.
SAY: Tell us about the Healing Walk you organized for your community in 2021. Bunn: The healing walk took place on July 1st, soon after hearing about the 215 recoveries in Kamloops. That news obviously hit our communities in a different way than it hit the rest of Canada and the rest of the world. It’s unfortunate that my story isn’t really unique when it comes to the Indigenous community—the stories of children being buried at residential schools, and unmarked graves, aren’t something new to the Indigenous community for a lot of us. Those are the stories that
COVER STORY our grandparents told us, our parents told us. This reopened a lot of trauma and caused more pain. It was gutwrenching. For a lot of survivors, this was the first time that people acknowledged what they’d been saying for years. I knew I wanted to provide a way for healing to take place for my family and my community. The idea of doing a walk came from my family, my Unkan Donald, a Birtle residential school survivor. He would tell me that when he was at the school, he wanted nothing more than to run away and go home. He never did make the attempt though because he witnessed the consequences his classmates endured when they did try to run. It’s something that always stuck in the back of my mind. I wanted to have meaning behind this walk—I wanted to walk home for my Unkan and all the children who never got to run or walk home on their own terms. Once I made a post on Facebook, people started sharing it, and it picked up a lot of traction very quickly. SAY: What was the most impactful part of the Healing Walk? Bunn: For me, the most impactful part of the whole thing was when we all gathered on the front lawn of the former Birtle residential school. Before the walk began, Terry Wasteste, an Elder from my community and a residential school survivor, shared his story and talked about how he did try to run away from the school but was unsuccessful and faced very serious consequences for doing so. It was a beautiful and emotional moment because he has so much hope for the future. One of my favourite things about Terry is his outlook on life—how he’s healed and is no longer angry, and how he believes reconciliation is achievable if we all work together. I think that caught the attention of not only people from my community, and not only Indigenous people, but I think it hit home for a lot of non-Indigenous people. His speech
and the pipe ceremony that followed were so poignant—it still gives me chills just talking about it—knowing that he performed a crucial part of our culture on the front lawn of the very institution that tried to eradicate us. It was definitely a reclamation of that space not only for him but for all the elders and survivors who were there that day. SAY: How did the Healing Walk evolve into the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Run? Bunn: I was really inspired by the Healing Walk experience, so I knew I wanted to do something recurring in order to continue the healing process and education. The walk was 26 kilometres and a half marathon is 21.1 kilometres, so we decided to turn it into a half marathon. So Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Half Marathon— the Reconciliation Run—took place on September 30th of this year and started on the former grounds of the Birtle residential school. Even the non-Indigenous community showed that they wanted to be involved. It was an inclusive
event that was easy to be a part of—a tangible way to show support and move toward reconciliation. The run provided people with education, reflection and learning, and I think that was the most important thing to me. SAY: Were there any special moments from the Reconciliation Run that stand out in your mind? Bunn: What stands out most for me from the 21.1 kilometre Reconciliation Run was one woman who said her legs hurt and she was so tired—it was the first half marathon she had ever participated in—but she kept going because she knew that so many children would have given anything to have kept running. People kept going in honour of those children who never got the chance to. There are no words to describe the interconnectedness that was felt during the run and during the feast that followed. I think it was an overall beautiful event, and I’m looking forward to seeing it grow and helping it grow in the coming years. For more information and to get involved in the 2023 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Half Marathon, please visit reconciliationrun.ca. Danielle Vienneau, Editor-in-Chief of SAY Magazine, believes in the power of sharing stories to inspire greatness in others. To submit your story, email editor@saymag.com. DECEMBER DECEMBER 2022 2022 ll HOLISTIC HOLISTIC HEALTH HEALTH || 15 15