We’re dealing with a lot of deep trauma’: B.C. Aboriginal peoples turn to culture for healing amid overdose crisis – Ottawa Citizen

The morning of his sister’s funeral, Jonathan Ewenin walked out of Vancouver General Hospital not knowing why he’d slept there.

Rail-thin, dazed and alone, he worried what his sister, Mary Bee, would have thought of him and of how he’d almost missed the chance to say goodbye.

It was Nov. 4, 2016, Ewenin’s 19th birthday. A fentanyl overdose had nearly killed him the night before, Ewenin later learned. His 26-year-old sister died Oct. 22. Her cause of death remains unknown.

Ewenin rushed to St. James Anglican Church in the Downtown Eastside for the funeral service, which was to be based on the West Coast, Cree and Dakota protocols of his family.

Read More: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/27we+27re+dealing+with+deep+trauma+aboriginal+peoples/13249038/story.html