The co-creation of a healing time-space in an ancestral territory, by and for the members of a native community in Quebec
This article deals with physical and sexual violence, isolation, high suicide rate and drug and alcohol abuse that often tear the social and family fabric of many Native communities of Canada. Substance abuse has long been identified as one of the root causes of various disorders found among Natives. We observed that this abuse is really more a symptom than a cause after looking at it from an historical and social perspective. With this knowledge and awareness of past heritage, intergenerational transmission of violence and substance abuse as well as the potential for healing, the local representatives of the Nutashkuan community have, with the help of psychologists, set up a healing project based on therapeutic expeditions on the Nitassinan river territory. At the start, this project was concerned with the problematics of substance abuse, but it has gradually been transformed into a co-creation environment based on the search for solutions. Today, the focus is no longer aimed at the destructive effects of substance abuse, but rather on developing well-being and protective elements which find their expression in family harmony and social peace.