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HEALING IS RESISTANCE

                       SHANNON DYBCZAK

     MARCH 16, 2021

I recently came across a very thoughtful and moving Facebook post on the effect of situations - the various structural stresses - that can, and do, affect and cause the mental health struggles of so many people.1 It is a very important insight and I want to point out particularly the importance of colonialism and its effect on Indigenous people in this dynamic.

I blame Colonialism and all that came, and all that comes, with it for most of the personal suffering we, Indigenous people, experience. It is important that we confront and acknowledge the harms it has caused.

Finding healing, for me as an Indigenous woman, was about reclaiming my connection with my true self, mind, body, spirit, and finding balance. I had to do the work to clear out my negative thoughts, fostered in the minds of so many of us Indigenous people by the continued colonial lies and oppression. I had to replace them with healthy tools for me and my situation. I slowly became able to trust my intuition again. Unlearning the lifetime of gaslighting (we were savages, “less-than” the people who have come here from Europe) inflicted on me by inter-generational trauma. This of course is made more difficult by the systematic genocide that continues for my people. That colonial experience (discrimination, and the falsifying of history for example) has drilled into me a false narrative from birth, that I don’t matter. It has been crucial that I dig deep to educate myself on how and why these things occurred and still occur. Only then could I learn to let go of the pain and use it to light a fire in me instead, and to really know and live by my own values.

The experience of colonialism can feel overwhelming to take on as one person, but I find peace and confidence in knowing that my very existence and the reclaiming of my culture, values and outlook are the resistance. And I try and help my community the best way I can. And that can be enough, as we heal, rise and grow together.

Western mental health care has its place; however, the meat of healing is in spirituality. I found more healing in reclaiming my culture. I found belonging, I found family and people who share similar stories. I’m not alone anymore.

It’s a hard, long journey, to get to a point where you can focus on the present and to look forward to the future, when you are stuck in the despair and the heavy, oppressive, fog. My advice, my plea, to my Indigenous sisters and brothers is this.: let us all try to embrace that hard work. It is hard, but it is necessary It is worth it, it is doable, it is truly possible. It is

resistance. The next generation will thank you for the effort and taking all the time you need to heal and break the cycles.

You are worth it.

We are all worth it.


Shannon Dybczak, spirit name, Little Feather, is Eagle Clan, and member of the Tsimshian First Nation from Lax Kw’alaams, BC. She comes from the Wells family and is also Norwegian on her father’s side. As a child she was displaced to Ontario. She is a graduate of the Community Worker Program, George Brown College in Toronto and now lives and works on Kwakwaka’wakw territory, Community Services Building for ‘Namgis First Nation) in Alert Bay, BC.

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1 The article, “Let's Talk About Situational Depression” by Katrina Bercov, originally appeared in The Amnesty Review, the Official periodical of the UWA branch of Amnesty International, Issue One, April, 2019. It has recently been republished in Critical Perspectives, March, 19, 2021.

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