There was 108 First Nations youth from BC and The Yukon who took part in the Transformation program during spring break at Ness Lake Bible Camp.
The program focuses on health and wellness needs of First Nations community members and the program geared for youth from 12 to 17 saw them doing archery, ziplining and tobogganing for fun and some work towards personal growth as well.
“We had a great week with the kids,” Thomas Morris, Transformations team leader, said.
It started in 2015 when Transformations was asked to create a program for First Nations in Canada.
“It’s about personal development and addressing the health and wellness needs of First Nations people,” Morris explained, whose background is as a drug and alcohol recovery counselor, being 48 years sober himself.
“We call it Transformations because we create a distinction between changing and transforming. When someone tries to change, and I use the word ‘tries’ appropriately because it often doesn’t work. Change is different from what something used to be and all of those possibilities exist in the past and psychologists know that if you bring the past into the present you’re just going to create more of the past.”
Morris suggests to those in the program not to try to change but rather transform.
“The youth get a new experience of themselves in community,” Morris said. “Connecting to their community, to their traditional culture and developing caring relationships.
So each night the youth gathered around a fire for singing, drumming and dancing for that purpose.
“We encouraged the students to get connected to their culture and be proud of being Indigenous because they suffer from the indignity of prejudice and discrimination,” Morris said. “So to have them be proud of being First Nations is really a beautiful piece.”
For more information visit https://www.transformations.ca/.
