Sober for October: Breaking Intergenerational Cycles – Linda’s Sobriety Journey – FNHA
Oct 23, 2023
Linda, Tła’li’pi’ni’ga̱ – which means ‘One who is always helping’, is from the Gwa’sala-Nakwaxda’xw First Nation on her maternal grandma’s side and the Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation on her maternal grandpa’s side. Her dad, Jamie, is a white settler. Linda has been on her sobriety journey from alcohol for three years and three months.
Linda, like many First Nations people, experienced trauma as a direct result of colonialism and residential schools. Her grandmother was apprehended and placed in St. Michael’s Residential School in Alert Bay; her mother was part of the 60s scoop. That cycle of trauma was repeated when Linda and her sister were taken and placed in the child welfare system.
Linda’s parents were entrenched in substance and alcohol use and she was only four-years-old when she was sent away from her community to a foster home in Squamish. She would spend the rest of her childhood in the foster care system. Due to this intergenerational and ongoing trauma, Linda describes herself growing up as a “lost little girl” without any connections or true understanding of herself, her parents or her home community.
