Last night’s showing of the documentary “Our Spirits Don’t Speak English” about the impact of the Indian Boarding Schools was well attended and the talk with trauma therapist Patty Grant (EBCI) that followed felt as deeply moving as any part of the film. She spoke openly about her own experience with addiction, about the deep wounding of her people by the dominant culture’s brutal imposition and forced assimilation. She spoke of the connection between loss of language, loss of place, loss of culture, and the resultant loss of self identity that inevitably brought on so much grief, depression, abuse, and addiction, what she described in conversation afterwards as “a cultural lobotomy.”
And she spoke of faith, of hope, and of healing. Of the oneness of all things. Of respect and gratitude. It was an honor to be present.