TESLIN TLINGIT COUNCIL
Project team: Gaye Hanson, Ralph Smarch, Chief Richard Sidney, Meghan Hajask (Teslin Tlingit Council); Dr. Helen Brown, Kelsey Timler (Critical Research in Health and Healthcare Inequities (CRiHHI) UBC; Clifford Hanuse (Wuikinuxv); Lerato Chondoma (IRSI UBC); Alanaise Goodwill (SFU Education). Past member: Dr. Jehannine Austin (UBC Centre for Brain Health).
Background
The Teslin Tlingit Council (TTC) is a First Nation with approximately 800 members based in Teslin in Southern Yukon Territory. Teslin Tlingit people have shared ancestry with the coastal Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and the Inland Tlingit people of Taku River First Nation and Carcross-Tagish First Nation. Like other First Nation communities, many TTC members are struggling with the lasting impacts of the residential school system.
Approach
In order to support healing and restoration for residential school survivors and their families, in November 2017, the TTC initiated a program called Łdakat kha_̂wu’sh îxhdashi (everybody heals). The premise of the program is to explore ways that the community’s cultural relationship to the environment can support healing from the legacy of residential schools and build overall capacity for the Nation. The project has five main goals:
- To support the resurgence of Teslin Tlingit culture
- To rebuild capacity for traditional harvesting activities
- To support the relearning of the Teslin Tlingit language
- To support a general understanding of the cultural relationship to the environment, and
- To build capacity for leadership and life skills in the community
In July 2018, IRSI and the UBC School of Nursing came on board as project partners, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the TTC. This project is the first arising out of that MOU.
Project funding
Teslin Tlingit Council / Yukon Government: $112,000
UBC Community-University Engagement Support Fund: $15,000
Canadian Institutes of Health Research: $73,712
Timeline
2018 to 2021
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