Day Two Tuesday 19th Visit to Stehiyaq Healing and Wellness Village.

Today was an amazing experience. We (Kristi and Myself) were very privileged to have Dr Lee take us to visit Stehiyaq Healing and Wellness Village. The village is in the mountains just outside of Chilliwack which is about 2 hours south of Vancouver. It should be said that on the way up and back the effects of jet lag were taking their toll. Lots of nodding off and struggling to stay awake.

The village is just about to open and is a place where the wisdom of Elders and traditional healing practices will join with modern approaches to help Aboriginal youth and families from across B.C. overcome histories of trauma, addiction and mental illness

We meet with the Executive Director of the service Richard Mayuk and Fran Douglas the Community Development worker who gave us a tour of the village, with its gardens, healing circles, craft and sports areas, and most importantly large communal dinning area. What struck me was how well the service matched OT values of healing through doing. We were very impressed by the friendly staff who made us feel very much at home. They are a connected group with a range of skills and a high amount of energy. They are all awaiting the first group of youth who will arrive in a couple of weeks.

We were offered the chance to take part in a traditional sweat lodge. I tentatively took up the offer borrowing a pair of trunks and taking off my wedding ring as apparently they can burn your skin (this bit of advice really put me at ease). I joined the third and fourth rounds of four. The third round was really intense but at the same time very calming. For a start we all crawled into the lodge (a canvas dome about the size of a large tent) we sat in a circle and then the hot rocks were shoveled in. The flap of the canvas was then closed so that we were in pitch black apart from the glow of the rocks. Sage and water where then added raising the heat. The third round was about praying to fathers and grandfathers, each person in a circle taking a turn. The ceremony was lead by Merv a local elder. I felt very calm but drained on emerging out of the tent. Kristi might tell you otherwise, as apparently I looked quite drained, uncoordinated and generally lost. I had to be guided around the fire to finish the ceremony before jumping into the cold river. Wow. I'll stop blogging about this now as it is an experience that is difficult to put into words.

After the sweat lodge we were then invited to dine with the staff where we spoke about our experience that day gave thanks and koha and sang waiata. This went down really well with the some of the staff drumming and chanting a song in response. We were also gifted some amazing prints by one of the staff.

As I already said this was a very special day we meet lots of good people, many of who talked about now visiting New Zealand. We were provided with a lots of written information about the service as well as contact details and will happily discuss more when we get back.

I'll finish by saying thanks to Dr Lee as well as Richard and his wonderful team.

The following photos are of the camp as well as the structure of a sweat house (not the one I went in though as this was not a place to take photos). We have more photos to add later, taken on Kristi's camera, as I was not quite with it and put mine back in the car.

The setting in the mountains
the Village
Kristi and Dr Lee
Sweat Lodge with out covering