'Helping Dene to be Dene again': Hay River First Nation nears healing centre proposal

A proposal to reopentheK'atl'odeecheFirst Nation's shuttered addictions treatment centre as a healing centre appears to be closer than ever, with meetings wrapping up at the reserve this week.

The First Nation announced plans to open the traditional healing centre in 2015, asking members to weigh in on what should be done with the facility. K'atl'odeecheFirst Nation chief Roy Fabian says those meetings have now wrapped, and a proposal should be ready to present to the territorial government "within the next couple ofweeks."

• Closed K'atl'odeechetreatment centre to be reopened as healing centre
• Contract axed for N.W.T.'s only addictions treatment centre
• N.W.T. government, Hay River Dene spar over addictions centre funding

The centre had been the only place in the Northwest Territories for people with addictions to seek treatmentuntil it was closed in 2013.

"The government couldn't keep their hands off of it," saysFabian.

The GNWT currently provides an "On The Land Healing Fund," which communities can apply for to offer their own treatment.It says about 350 people participated in that program last year.

A further 238 people were sent to one of four southern treatment centres, at a cost of just over $2 million.

Fabian says sending Dene patients to a Cree or any other indigenous group's facility is not appropriate in an era of decolonization.

"The centre is about helping Dene to be Dene again," he says.

"We need to deal with all the traumas and all the issues related to residential schools and the whole colonization process."

Fabian says he was himself sent south to Poundmakers Lodge, a Cree treatment facility.

"Once I was finished, the Cree people told me, they said, 'Roy, you came to us, you wanted us to help you heal, and the only way we know how to help you heal is the Cree way. But when you go up north, and you want to set up a Dene healing centre, don't bring our ceremonies.

"'Your challenge is to figure out what Dene spirituality is,''' he recalls being told before he left Poundmakers. "And we did that."

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report prescribed the establishment of healing centres in Nunavut and the N.W.T. to reach residential school survivors.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to adopt every action laid out in the TRC's report.

"We're going to recommend that the Dene wellness centre be the wellness centre that's been recommended bythe TRC," says Fabian.

The government says it is supporting the K'atl'odeeche First Nation in the process of developing the new plan for the facility, and that it will work with the First Nation to determine how best to use it.