INDIGENOUS VOICES
Returning to the Teachings BY DEREK CHEWKA, MSW, RSW
a heavy heart, I called Elder Leona Makokis who was to facilitate the ceremony to tell her the news. When she answered, she said, “I wondered when you were going to call.” When
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Read a book to a child. Practice deep breathing. Learn something new. Pray and smudge. Learn 5 words from your native language.
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Be in nature. And be silent.
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Call a loved one and tell them how much they mean to you. Laugh. Laugh lots. Make a list of what you are grateful for. Ask one person how they are O doing.
Read.
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Wash your hands. Go outside. Role model social distancing. Try new foods. Stay hydrated.
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BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, we will have been many weeks in the tight grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our lives have already changed, and the future is uncertain. Hopefully, as this
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Diagram 1. Self-Care During a Pandemic Using the Teachings of the Medicine Wheel, author unknown.
issue is released, we will have stopped the spread, and the curve will be on a downward trajectory allowing us to return to whatever our new normal is. The Indigenous Social Work Committee was deeply saddened when we heard the ACSW Conference had to be cancelled. We felt the loss of the months of planning for the teaching Sweat Lodge ceremony to be offered at the conference. With 10
SUMMER 2020
I told her that the sweat planned for the conference had been cancelled, she replied, “It’s not cancelled, just postponed. It will happen, just not right now.” She went on to share that this is time for us to remain calm, not to make rash decisions and listen to what Mother Earth is telling us. Many people want answers as to why this is happening. Leona shared that when
we are all ready, we will be provided with the why. Right now, we need to look after ourselves and our families, pray and smudge. I would go on to tell those in my circle what Leona shared. I told people outside my circle. I told whoever would listen. Be calm, do not make rash decisions and listen to what Mother Earth is telling us. After a few weeks passed, we began planning next year’s conference in Calgary – a welcome opportunity to focus on something positive. In my professional role, my team and I planned how to respond to COVID19 and shift to working from home to stop the spread. I was thrust into a professional role that I was familiar with: responding to crisis. To do so while remembering Leona’s teachings required that I be grounded. I searched for tools to help achieve this for myself and my team. Here’s what helped, courtesy of a caring co-worker: a medicine wheel (see diagram 1) depicting self-care strategies one can practice while being isolated during the pandemic. Need motivation to get up and do these things? Extend an invitation to someone to participate with you. We are in this together. Reach out to your neighbors to make sure they are OK. Each of us is strong. Together, we are stronger.
DEREK CHEWKA is Chair of the Indigenous Social Work Committee and Director of Child and Family Services with Yellowhead Tribal Council. He recently commenced his PhD studies with Walden University.
