Spirituality as Decolonizing: Elders Albert Desjarlais, George McDermott, and Tom McCallum Share Understandings of Life in Healing Practices
Judy Iseke
This paper looks at the importance of story and maintaining a connection to tradition within a Canadian indigenous context.
“Indigenous peoples have begun a process of reasserting traditional knowledges and examining how it can be useful to the next generations and to a broader world as part of a decolonizing agenda. Indigenous Elders are the educators, storytellers, historians, language keepers, and healers of our communities. They sustain knowledge, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs held collectively within Indigenous communities and pass it on to the next generations. Through a storytelling methodology in a collaborative dialogue, Elders shared with each other their stories about healers and healing practices, life experiences, and land-based perspectives, as well as history and language issues. Their stories illuminate a process of becoming whole within the ongoing challenges posed by colonization.”
You can find a copy of this paper in the open access Journal: Decolonization, Indigeneity, Education & Society
Contributed by Aneta Cram