Elaine Alec: Calling my Spirit Back

Today marks the 4th annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada. Also known as Orange Shirt Day, it is a day we remember the atrocities experienced by Indigenous peoples over generations in Canada.

From the 1870s to as late as 1997, Indigenous children were taken from their homes and forced to attend residential schools that were federally funded and run by the Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada developed 94 calls to action in 2015 to address the truth of what happened in the residential schools in Canada. You can find the report here: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action.

According to a report published last year by the Yellowhead Institute, only 13 of the 94 calls to action have been completed. That’s under 14%. Based on the rate of completion, the Yellowhead Institute projects that it will take until 2081 for all the calls to action to be completed, and thus, until 2081 for the Indigenous peoples of Canada to get reconciliation. 

If your children were taken from your home and never seen again, you would not sit still. If your children were forced to eat their own vomit at school, you would not rest. If your children were physically and sexually abused at school, you would break.

Trauma that is not supported to be released/healed passes down through generations. It is no wonder that trauma experienced at the hands of the colonizer is then experienced within the communities themselves.

Elaine Alec is many things: mother, survivor, author, entrepreneur, the list goes on. She self-published her book Calling my Spirit Back in 2020, and it’s her work I’d like to draw your attention to today.

© Elaine Alec, 2020

In her book she shares her life experience. My goodness, what an inspiration. The writing is intimate, and the reader really gets a sense of Indigenous culture, values, nuances of language, teachings, and so forth.

To a survivor of complex trauma, her work hits home, and gives light and hope that we can make it through to the other side. She gives us a front row seat to someone working through their trauma, and shows that it takes real courage; we’re often faced with fear, doubt, shame, and a whole rollercoaster of emotions. Ultimately, it is rewarding and liberating, and in finding the courage to honour our experiences and take our power back, we learn to heal, we learn to set healthy boundaries, we learn to use our voice, we learn to live and act according to our identity and values. We learn to crawl, stand, and to walk as adults because we didn’t really know how to do that in a healthy way as babies and children. Along this ongoing journey, we learn to define ourselves versus having our trauma be definitive.

The art of listening and holding space is pervasive throughout this story. If there’s one thing this article and today’s events teach you, get out there and listen and read the stories of survivors. Hold space for them, hold space for yourself.