Before the Alaska Resilience Initiative could push forward on any of its goals—to grow a sustainable statewide network; to educate all Alaskans on brain development, adverse childhood experiences, and resilience-building; and to support organizational, policy and practice change to address trauma—its leaders had to start by listening.
Specifically, they had to listen to Alaska Native people.
That’s why Laura Norton-Cruz, program director of the Alaska Resilience Initiative, partnered with First Alaskans Institute and the Chickaloon Village Traditional Council in a May 2016 gathering that put Native perspectives, customs, history and hopes at the center.
The group’s recommendations included specific suggestions for revising the materials currently used for ACE/resilience trainers, emphasizing:
- Cultural and collective trauma, including ongoing injustices faced by Alaska Native people and others worldwide—for instance, mandatory boarding school attendance and the loss of traditional food sources;
- Cultural and collective strengths, such as indigenous practices of healing and child-rearing;
- An understanding that the ACE Study translates and confirms what is ancestral knowledge for Alaska Native and other indigenous people;
- Basic cultural competence;
- A focus on cultural humility, partnering and listening.
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