Speaker Name: Randal Bell Asiniy Maskwa
Session Description:
Just as our ancestors knew it took a village to raise a child, we understand that it also takes a community to support recovery. The therapeutic community model aligns strongly with Indigenous values of family, community, belonging, and connection.
The roots of Indigenous addiction cannot be understood without recognizing the legacy of colonialism. Colonial policies deliberately disrupted and removed the foundations of Indigenous life: land, language, culture, ceremony, family and community. These colonial systems sought to weaken Indigenous peoples by separating them from the very strengths that sustained them for generations. The result has been profound and lasting harm, and generations of Indigenous families caught in the cyclic vicissitudes of addiction.
Stone Bear Recovery Solutions recognizes that the opposite of addiction is not simply sobriety, but connection (Hari, 2015). We recognize that Indigenous Recovery requires reconnection to community, culture, ceremony, identity, and relationships; the very strengths colonialism sought to remove. Indigenous Recovery Communities provide a perfect substrate for re-connection to take root and a rich environment for these connections to grow and flourish.
This presentation explores how Indigenous Recovery Communities can serve as a culturally grounded pathway for Indigenous healing. By reconnecting individuals and families to community and cultural practices, these communities offer a supportive environment capable of interrupting cycles of addiction that have affected generations.
Join this discussion to learn how Stone Bear Recovery Solutions is approaching a new frontier in Indigenous addiction treatment through a connection-focused, strength-based, trauma-informed paradigm that may help illuminate solutions to questions we are only beginning to ask.
Learning Objectives:
- To understand the colonial roots of Indigenous SUD
- To understand the Recovery Community Model
- To understand the role of connection in Indigenous Recovery
References:
Hari, J. (2015). Chasing the scream: The first and last days of the war on drugs. Bloomsbury.
Henderson, R. I., Wadsworth, I., Healy, B., et al. (2021). Healing the whole human being: Realist review of best practices and contextual factors for preventing and treating opioid misuse in Indigenous contexts in Alberta.
Rowan, M., Poole, N., Shea, B., et al. (2014). Cultural interventions to treat addictions in Indigenous populations. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 9(34).
Rowan, M., Poole, N., Shea, B., et al. (2015). A scoping study of cultural interventions: Two-Eyed Seeing approach. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 10(26).
BIO
Randal’s Cree name is “Asiniy Maskwa” which translates to Stone Bear. Randal is a proud father, a husband, a son, and a brother. He is a proud member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan’s Treaty 6 territory. Randal is the current Executive Director of Stone Bear Recovery Solutions, a member of the ROSC Solutions Group. Randal was previously the Executive Director of the Apiwikamik Wellness on Enoch Cree Nation. Prior to that, Randal did strategic and operational planning for provincial addiction and mental health services at AHS, where he led multiple strategies addressing Indigenous Addiction and Mental Health service needs, including the development of the Indigenous Addictions and Mental Wellness Strategy for Alberta.
Randal has provided private addiction and mental health consulting services on over 20 different First Nations and Metis communities in Western Canada. He has held executive management positions in social care and health in Saskatchewan, Alberta, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. He holds a Bachelor of Social Work, a Master of Public Health, and is currently completing his Doctorate in Public Health at the University of Alberta. Randal resides in Edmonton with his wife Liv, their daughter MacKenzie and their dog “Tinky Donuts.”