Elder Lorraine

It takes time.

Pathways to Healing.

Lorraine White
Indigenous Elder • Pathways

It takes time to build relationships. It takes time to start to deal with their hurts. And until you deal with those hurts, you cannot move forward in life. And this is what I teach the ladies that I work with because I'm a Pathways Elder.

My name is Lorraine White. I am an elder.

As an elder, when you're working with young people, you yourself, you get wholeness, you get your own medicine wheel healed while you're working with young people because you're passing down your teachings.

Truth and reconciliation

Truth and reconciliation means a lot. It means a lot of work, a lot of hard work. It's up to us, Indigenous people, to be able to share our knowledge, our teachings. It means getting that information out to everyone in Canada, not only the various Indigenous people and all the different tribes. It means showing our youngsters, our young people, our grandchildren, our children, to make sure that they get their information out and they know who they are, Indigenous people. And to be proud of that.

Every day we were taught by elders about how to live with land, how to build that relationship up with creator and all of the animals, the air, the fire, all the elements. And we were taught our ceremonies and our language. And this is where I come from. And I'm a lodge keeper. I'm a pipe carrier because of all that. And I continue to live that way because I choose to, because that's how I was raised and that's how I was taught. And so my experience is coming into this institution. That is what I teach.

WHOLENESS

PROUD