Herbert Nabigon, an Ojibway elder who teaches in the School of Native Human Services Social Work programme at Laurentian University is reknown for his teachings on the medicine wheel and pipe ceremonies. In Nabigon’s book The Hollow Tree: Fighting Addiction with Traditional Native Healing, he provides to readers the medicine wheel teachings which comprise “ancient daily rituals and ceremonies dating as far back as the early Stone Age and is now being revealed by its keepers, the Indigenous peoples” (Nabigon, 2006, p. 60). He links sacred teachings to spiritual and healing concepts necessary for working with First Nations peoples and their communities. Today his book is used by many social workers as a cultural and healing framework for working with Native communities. Perhaps an essential message that he imparts is about his journey of re-learning his traditional culture as a way to beat alcoholism. Readers and particularly undergraduate social work students gain an insight into the strengths and inner wisdoms of traditional teachings as a way to heal, search for inner meanings about life and importantly gain a framework for understanding the history of colonialism and its impacts on First Nations peoples and the self. Nabigon makes links to his early experience of being taken away from his parents and community and being sent to a Residential School. The experience he had (like many others) was of being punished for speaking his Native tongue and being stripped of his culture, teachings and identity. He likens this early experience as being “the setting for the many triggers in my life that led me on a downward spiral of despair” (p. 4). He draws upon traditional teachings as a method of personal and cultural introspection which offers a holistic framework for healing and understanding.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=KCzk59c6GBYC&dq=the+hollow+tree+nabigon&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=eAGtHaCkco&sig=OVz6AaY4RA5ZgXY3W2M3HUjsXhg&hl=en&ei=K8OfSq-uN4HlnQeByvzyDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
Herb is both a colleague and friend, and he walks his talk. I highly recommend his book and appreciate his honesty and openness for sharing to others. Taima
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