Maggie Hodgson - Speaking My Truth

Maggie Hodgson, a member of the Nadleh Whuten Carrier First Nation, works
locally, nationally, and internationally on justice and healing initiatives. She was
the founder and host for the first “Healing Our Spirit Worldwide” gathering held
in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1992. The gathering attracted more than three thousand
participants from around the world. Maggie spearheaded the successful national
campaign, “Keep the Circle Strong, National Addictions Awareness Week,” which
has grown to involve fifteen hundred communities and seven hundred thousand
people. She is co-founder and national co-chair of Canada’s National Day of Healing
and Reconciliation, celebrated each year on May 26th as part of an international
movement that began in Australia. Maggie has also served as an advisor to the World
Health Organization on addictions prevention.
Among her many awards for work in community development are the National
Aboriginal Achievement Award, United Nations Community Development Award,
Canadian Public Health Community Development Award, Alberta Aboriginal Role
Model Award, and Alberta Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Commission Award of
Excellence. She has two honorary doctorates: one conferred by the University of
Alberta and a second by St. Paul’s University in Ottawa. From 1982 to 1997, she
served as chief executive officer at the Nechi Institute.
In “Reconciliation: A Spiritual Process,” Maggie addresses the pivotal role of
connecting or reconnecting with spirituality in promoting healing and reconciliation.
Ironically, it was the combination of laws forbidding participation in ceremonies
and the imposition of a residential school system that stripped individuals of their
spirituality in the first place: this is at the root of the need for healing today. Maggie
recounts how Aboriginal people have taken the initiative to reclaim their spiritual
practices and to engage in the hard work of healing. She returns again and again
to the words of Abe Burnstick, one of her teachers, who promoted the moral high
road of personal choice: “It’s up to you,” Elder Burnstick reminds us. She recounts
two stories of Survivors, now Elders, who received compensation for their years in
residential school and how they used the money to support ongoing healing. By
following these stories, we learn that money can be used for good ends, but it is the
lifelong work involved in healing the spirit that leads to true reconciliation. This article
is imbued with lessons if we care to look for them.
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