b'FLOWERING MOONHealing Together By Rick GarrickJenny Sutherlands pursuit for community F or Jenny Sutherland, founderhealing and systemic changethink its important to speak to this andUnderstanding this history illuminates and caretaker of Misiwe Nihelp people understand what Canada waspersisting challenges that Indigenous Relations Healing Lodge,trying to do: eliminate Indigenous identitypeoples, including Sutherland, face living healing begins at home. Herand take away our rights, replacing spiritualunder colonial laws that continue to experiences with the effects of residentialties and healthy connections with pain andoppress Indigenous peoples and sacred schools in her community led her to pursueshame, and how it has led us to where weways of living. I talk a lot about intergener-a career in mental health and psychology. are today. ational trauma, but its just as important to I wanted to understand why people were struggling, says Sutherland, a member of Moose Cree First Nation who holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Brock University and a Master of Social Work from the University of Toronto. Being Indigenous, and being in the trauma, and being in the community, you become very aware quite young that there has been harm done, so I wanted to pursue how to be a helper.In pursuing her Master of Social Work, Sutherland focused on Indigenous families and their unique needs. Part of me actually wants to pursue a PhD still, to continue my work with explaining our intergenerational insecure attachments. My masters years were very traumatic because we had just lost a family member to suicide, she says. It was a struggle to do those two years because I was studying our trauma and I was in our trauma.Despite expanding discourse on inter-generational trauma, Sutherland says that the depth of residential school trauma echoing in communities has been insufficiently addressed. Gratefully, we have a lot more information now since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). What I have realized is that [residential schools] attacked our sacred bond between child and family and people from their spiritual ties to the land, she explains. So for me, really looking at what those sacred bonds mean, the two most powerful bonds that we can haveare to our children and to the land that we call momand what happens when that bond is replaced with colonial violence. I really 26 Fall/Winter 2025'