Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to talk about an experience I recently had. I left the Legislative building after a very busy week. I decided I would see if I could drop in at the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation healing camp located behind the Yellowknife field house. As I began the walk along the trail, I came to the bridge. There were the teepees and the canvas tent. As I walked up to the canvas tent, I heard some voices and knocked on the door. There, I was greeted by a familiar face, who is a counsellor, and other camp staff, who were all so welcoming. As I sat there, it brought me back to my childhood and to my happy place as a child where everyone gathered together and everyone was happy. As I sat and talked with the staff, they told me what they did. They had their roles as we did when we lived in our camp. The staff there are there because they care. Little did I know that was exactly what I needed that day. No one asked me about my feelings. No one talked to me about why I was there. We just talked and laughed and provided. Before I left, they provided smudging. Although this is not my culture, they were very respectful to me, that I could just watch.
Mr. Speaker, this made me think about a time I went to a counsellor in the hospital, in an office, that I had booked for myself. After I testified in the missing and murdered Indigenous women inquiry, I thought, "This is what you need to do to debrief after an emotional, stressful situation," because this is what I learned in school for my career, and this is what I told people to do in my past career. I feel now I was doing them a disservice. Not all the people in the NWT may benefit from one way of counselling, Mr. Speaker. Let me tell you that I did not leave that counselling appointment feeling as good as the way I felt after I left the healing camp after just one visit. I actually left feeling worse that I opened up and I got nothing in return.
The Arctic Indigenous Wellness healing camp fulfills a broad focus of counselling needs: grief and loss, anger, depression, family, relationship, emotional, spiritual needs, and anything that a client comes to them with. They provide breakfast to the homeless but only until March 31st because that is what they are only funded until by the City of Yellowknife, which is great. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement, Mr. Speaker.
---Unanimous consent granted
