For the fifth year in a row, Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN) organized a public vigil and feast in Thompson for northern families still reeling from the death of a loved one.
This event, which took place Dec. 8 at St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church and was put together by NCN’s Family and Community Wellness Centre, aimed to unite these families together in their common grief and put them on the road to recovery.
“When you bring people together like this they have a common experience and it also creates a common bond with one another, so that they can relate to each other on how we lose a loved one,” said NCN member Jacqueline Walker, who started this event half a decade ago.
According to South Indian Lake resident Delia Saultier, this opportunity to share is what originally encouraged her to attend this event for the first time in 2017.
Saultier made the return to St. Joseph’s Hall on Saturday and told Nickel Belt News that last year’s gathering really helped her cope with the loss of her 28-year-old son Mark Dumas, who was murdered back in 2015.
“It helped me relate to other people,” she said. “When I came last year I was like ‘OK, I guess other people have gone through stuff like us.’ They know about the brutality of it and how my son’s death was so bad.”
Even though her son’s killer was recently convicted of second-degree murder, and will be sentenced in January, Saultier said that her family still has a long way to go in terms of processing their feelings of loss and sadness.
Having gone through that same process herself, Walker acknowledges that this next stage in Saultier’s journey will be daunting, which isn’t helped by the fact that comprehensive mental health services are hard to come by in Northern Manitoba.
Walker mentioned that the Manitoba government recently provided NCN’s Family and Community Wellness Centre with $30,000, which, in addition to funding this year’s holiday vigil, will help them facilitate a biweekly bereavement support group here in Thompson.
In the years to come, Walker is hoping that this grant money can also cover transportation, since long-distance travel can be a barrier for families living in First Nations like Cross Lake and Norway House.
“Right now, the wellness centre provides that transportation for our families [in Nelson House] to come into Thompson to get access to those services,” said Walker. “And I’m sure there’s other ways that it can be improved so that everybody gets access to it.”
For more information on this service, please contact NCN’s Family and Community Wellness Centre at (204) 484-2341.
