Arctic Winds Healing Winds
Interviewees: Elise Boudreau and Tami Truett Jerue 1. How did this work come about? And why was it necessary? The name of our project tells of the mission of our organization. The “Arctic” signifies the speaking of truth; it’s about the importance of telling the story. The meaning of “Winds” is about healing. When we speak the truth, we heal. It comes from the Yup’ik way of being, our personal experience, and that of others we know. Elise: I am a survivor of abuse. I had to arrive at a place in my life when I stopped blaming myself and realized that what had happened to me was not my fault. I was able to work with other survivors and found that many others also blame themselves for the violence they experienced; I wanted to change that. So, I began by working on a film. I was able to meet with a trauma expert out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and through this connection I was able to go to the Teleos Institute.4 There I learned of noble purpose and the idea of our non-profit developed from this connection. I collaborated with two other programs to create a program for 3-day sessions that focused on the belief that solutions for our social ills come from within each of us. We have change agents that focus their work on addressing many difficult social ills. We get a picture of what’s going with people and the understanding of how to address the challenges. It started with a leadership project that was sponsored by 7th Generation fund for Indigenous Peoples. We were guided by the belief that it is necessary for us to address ills from within and not from the outside. 2. To accomplish your work, how does your project draw upon the best of the what has been or is in your organization and community? In order to accomplish what we were doing, we organized a leadership summit that brought six groups together at Arctic Winds Healing Winds (AWHW). During the meetings they
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