We Are a Generation of Healers

Photo: My Sister, me and my Brother in 1985.

"Everything the power does, it does in a circle." - Oglala Lakota

I feel honored to be a part of the Native American community at this time period on Earth. Prior generations had to assimilate into society and forget about their culture and the language. When my Grandfather moved to Detroit for work he was fluent in Anishinaabemowin. My Father said that he would speak to him in Anishinaabemowin. Because my Father and Mother spent time living and working in Metro Detroit the language was lost and disconnection from culture and community remained. My Dad picked up a couple language books when in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the late 1990's. He would speak some words to me. When he spoke the language to me it felt like a homecoming. Now I am learning the language and am very proud to be a part of a generation of people who are committed to revitalizing the language and culture.

I feel honored to be a part of the healing that is taking place in Native communities. There is still a fight for land, justice and culture. Especially here in Michigan/Anishinaabe Terrirtory with the fight for Eagle Rock - migizi wa sin. I have noticed a change on my family's reservation. These changes include more services for elders, youth, family, women, a community college and a library. This stuff wasn't on the reservation when I would visit as a kid. There are healing walks and walks for justice that take place on a state and national level. In Michigan there are language revitalization efforts taking place in urban environments as well as on reservations. I have taken some classes and have enjoyed doing so.

We are a generation of healers because we can choose to turn the intergenerational trauma to intergenerational healing. We can start with ourselves and our families. I have been really blessed to have a family that is open and committed to healing. I know many people who have had to completely cut themselves off from their family and do healing on their own. In my healing work I have been able to reflect the inner work I have done on my family. In turn, each individual in my family can reflect the healing that they have done onto each other. I have worked in the Native community and will continue to do so. I can reflect and send the healing I have experienced in myself and in my family into the community. Healing happens in a circle.

I am on a healing path. I am a part of the generation of healers in the Native community who have and will bring justice and healing to ourselves, families, relatives, communities and future generations. According to various Native and Indigenous prophecies this is a time of great purification on Earth. With the issues that plague Earth such as: war, greed, environmental degradation, hunger, racism, sexism and violence many of us know it is time for a change. We truly have to start with ourselves. This is where the works lies. This is why I am committed to walking a healing path in my life. Small miracles are in the great acts of love that we can do in this world. I can help a Native sister heal from sexual assault or be a listening ear to those who have experienced great injustice because they are a Native person, often invisible, in this world. Healing may entail feeling the weight of oppression on your shoulders. It may mean sitting in great sorrow that was passed down from previous generations. Healing is knowing that I am worthy. Healing is crying with my Dad and allowing him the space to do so. Healing is releasing and opening ourselves to love. Love seemed so far away in previous generations. Love was scary when we were crippled with pain and trauma. Love was foreign to us. We only internalized what previous generations carried on their shoulders. As a generation of healers we can heal and release the heavy burdens of the past. Healing love can become normalized in our lives and for the future generations.