Wisdom of the land.
Iinii Moyis Land-based Teaching Addiction Treatment
There are no future sessions scheduled and we are not taking referrals for Iinii Moyis at this time.
If you are interested in Indigenous land-based programming or need a site to conduct your own programming, contact Ken Schmaltz at 4-587-390-7058.
Iinii Moyis (Blackfoot for Buffalo Lodge) was a pilot 30-day Indigenous land-based treatment program for males aged 18 to 24 that ran in the month of August 2020. We are currently in the process of evaluating the pilot and securing funding for future sessions. Feedback from participants and elders who were involved in the pilot was overwhelmingly positive and that it will save lives.
The program included traditional addiction treatment such as individual counselling and group sessions, outdoor activities such as hiking and a high ropes challenge course, and a foundation of Indigenous land-based teaching that focused on ceremony, culture, language, identity, and interconnection with the land.
The program is located at our remote 20-acre facility beside a lake at the foot of the Canadian Rocky Mountains in the Ghost Wilderness.
The pilot was funded by The City of Calgary Change Can’t Wait grant program.
PARTNERS IN A LONGER STORY
Although Iinii Moyis was a 30-day pilot program, we see it as the beginning of a longer story–for both participants and Enviros. If Indigenous land-based teaching is something that you or your organization would benefit from, or you need a location to run your own land-based program, contact Ken Schmaltz at kschmaltz@enviros.org.
The Story of the Buffalo and the Storm
As a storm approaches, the buffalo observes that other animals like itself shake with fear. Some of them stand still and others run from the storm. It’s in the wisdom of the buffalo that it realizes if it chooses to do the same, it could freeze to death or prolong the duration of the storm. So, the buffalo turns into the storm, head lowered and taking slow steps into the wind, freezing temperatures and deepening snow, knowing it will cut the duration of the storm in two. As the buffalo begins to build self confidence, self worth, self acceptance, faith and trust in itself, it begins to run into the storm. Then the buffalo begins to charge the storm with its head held high and finally breaking through the storm. Family and friends are waiting, birds are singing, the sun is shining, waters are clear, the grass is green.
In life we all carry storms in our hearts from the past to the present.