A return to the traditional ways

Page 27

The Liard First Nation is embarking on a five-year healing plan to address substance abuse and possibly restore some cultural traditions, including drumming and the potlatch, to the people.

The first step is a program which trains band members to build with logs, and their first project is a healing centre.

"It's really exciting ? we have 14 trainees who are taking the log-building course," says Chief Ann Bayne. "It's community driven ? it's up to the members to decide where we put the healing centre and what we name it," she adds.

The centre, slated to open in the fall of 1996, will include a cook house, a bunk house for single people and cabins for families, said Brian Herrington, National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program Worker for Liard.

Once the centre is finished, the trained band members will form a company to build log houses.

Liard, one of the five Kaska bands in northern B.C. and the Yukon, now is waiting for two resource people, who will help them develop and implement the rest of the plan and train other band members in various kinds of therapy work.

Chief Bayne said the idea for the healing plan came about as a result of her own personal journey in recovery and was a big part of her election platform before she was chosen as chief in 1992. She hopes it will restore some cultural traditions which they have not practiced for a long time, along with their spirituality, which has been missing from their lives. The plan, which has been in the designing stages for about a year now, has been mandated by the band members. The other Kaska bands have not yet adopted it, but several Yukon bands have expressed an interest, Bayne said.