b'COMMUNITY HEALINGWhen people start hearing about culture and they start hearing about roles and responsibilities, it gives them a sense of belonging that they never had before, and it fills them up.- Sandra MontourGanhkwsras shelter opened in 1992 in Six Nations of the Grand River to provide services to women in the community. The original board of directors wanted the need for services to be highlighted: They said . we want the shelter on the main street, says Montour. This is a community problem. Everybody is impacted by domestic violence, by family violence. Their second-stage housing was built in 1994, and both projects were finan-cially assisted by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). And weve just grown since then, Montour says, noting that they areo F Y our currently working with about 3,500T orge individuals per year. We started out with a mens program in the early 1990s as a pilot project because weO wnP athknew, even back then, that if were going to do services the way our communities wanted us to do services, it cant just be for women. We also have to work with our men.Montour says many of the individualsKnowledge is a gift to the who receive services at Ganhkwsra were never taught their culturalcommunity and the world.roles and responsibilities. A lot of this is new learning for people, and what we find too is people are veryEmbrace your journey of strength, eager and people are very hungryresilience, and cultural pride for the culture, for the traditions,through education, and pave the she explains. Thats because a lot of us werent raised with thatbeingway for future generations.so close to the Mush Hole [Mohawk Institute Residential School] as we are, the culture has been taken, stolen from a lot of our families, so when people start hearing about culturecentennialcollege.caand they start hearing about roles and responsibilities, it gives them a sense of belonging that they never had before, and it fills them up.Ontario Native Womens Association13'