Cultivating safe spaces and reconciliation was the focus of two workshops recently offered in Williams Lake.
Elaine Alec, a storyteller, facilitator and chief executive officer of her company Naqsmist from Kamloops, led the workshops on Aug. 16 and Oct. 16 at the fire hall.
Participating in the workshops were emergency operations centre staff from the Cariboo Regional District, city of Williams Lake, Esk’et and Williams Lake First Nation, a counsellor from Denisiqi Services Society and employees from the Foundry and from Canadian Mental Health Association Cariboo-Chilcotin Branch.
“I know every town and village has work to do, but I was so excited about the work that people here are doing to support reconciliation and safety,” Alec said Monday, Oct. 16 after the workshop. “They were willing to have uncomfortable conversations. It gave me hope that so many people from different areas were willing to come and learn. I was excited.”
About three years ago, she was inspired to develop a framework for cultivating safe spaces after she had travelled across B.C. in 2019 in response to the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
She had also done a contract for the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General called Path Forward.
“We went to 12 communities in B.C. to talk about violence in our communities and a lot of the feedback I heard was that we need a decolonized approach to having really difficult conversations.”
In the last three years, she has worked with governments at all levels in Canada and in the U.S., with policy developers, pharmacists, doctors, lawyers and negotiators as a facilitator doing workshops.
She said she turns down invitations where workshops are “just a check box” for people, preferring to work with groups of people who are really interested in reconciliation, cultivating safe spaces and decolonizing.
Alec is a member of the Penticton Indian Band.
In 2020 she wrote and published a memoir titled Calling My Spirit Back, of which 14,000 copies have sold.
“It is the story about my life growing up in my community with my grandma who only spoke our language,” she said.
The book explores the trauma in her life, such as the sexual abuse she experienced as a child and her struggles with alcoholism and addiction.
On Oct. 10, 2023, she celebrated her 16 years of sobriety birthday.
City of Williams Lake well-being and safety coordinator Silvia Dubray brought Alec in to do the workshops, with funding from a Canadian Red Cross grant.
“The grant was provided to grow more community resiliency post 2017 wildfires, 2018 floods and COVID,” Dubray said.
READ MORE: Rave review: B.C. electronic music lovers cultivating healthier culture
READ MORE: Silvia Dubray hired as Williams Lake’s new well-being and community safety co-ordinator
Want to read more local stories like this? Sign up for the Efteen’s newsletter right to your email. Consider purchasing a subscription to the Tribune to support local journalism for just .99 cents per week!
