This solo episode serves as a post-summer update, thoughts on Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada, upcoming trauma informed lawyering training opportunities and information about "must listen" upcoming episodes.
September 30th is Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada, will you be a witness?
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>> Myrna McCallum : I'm Myrna McCallum, Metis Cree lawyer and passionate promoter of Trauma informed layering. Welcome back to the Trauma Informed Lawyer Podcast. As you know, I believe that law schools and bar courses are missing a critical competency requirement in their curriculum. Trauma Informed Lawyering. Becoming a Trauma Informed lawyer will, among other things, challenge you to critically reflect on your personal behaviors, beliefs and biases, call on you to positively transform the way you approach advocacy, guide your practice to avoid doing further harm to others, and ask that you commit to remaining open to learn new and old knowledge you didn't know you needed before beginning your career. Your education starts right here, right now.
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>> Myrna McCallum : Just a quick shout out to the Canadian Bar association for supporting season one of my podcast. Before I even released episode one, they were all in. And I just want to say thank you CBA for all of your support. And I now want to give a shout out to the BC Law Foundation. The BC Law foundation has generously offered to cover the transcripts for season two of the Trauma Informed Lawyer podcast. So to them, my hands go up. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, so it's been a while since I've been producing content for my podcast. Thank you so much for hanging in and staying subscribed even though I hadn't produced anything since June.
First off, I just, you know, I want to apologize to all the guests that I had on my show that I, had conversations with prior to taking a break. I've got probably five, maybe six conversations just waiting for me to edit them and upload them, release them to all of you. And so for any of my guests who've been waiting to listen to our conversation released on the Trauma Informed Lawyer podcast, I'm on it. I'm back at work. I'm gonna get it done. Thank you for your patience. I had released, or I had started season two of this podcast, I think in May. And then June was the last time I released an episode. That was my conversation with Marian Buller. And shortly after that, there was the discovery of the 200 seen unmarked graves at the site of what was once Kamloops Indian Residential School. I'm not sure what exactly triggered about that discovery, but I know where it hit me, and it hit me in the throat. Like my voice. I. I was having problems with my speech and with my throat and with just my voice. And it was all I could do to fulfill all of my commitments and obligations. Very end of June. And once I did all of that, I disappeared for the summer and I just didn't even want to speak anymore. Like, never utter another word. It was an interesting time, but fortunately, I've come through that. And I hope you could tell that my voice sounds like it used to. I think the last few episodes that had been released on this podcast, even my daughter had noticed that, my voice didn't sound the same. I sounded quite tired and as I was. And so talking about trauma all the time probably doesn't help either.
It's a new day, and I have a new perspective and a new approach to doing what I do. And hopefully I will have others assisting me and supporting me in the work that I do. Right now, I do this podcast on Sunday. Sunday is my podcast day. And, it takes me a long time to edit stuff and to put everything, piece everything together so it sounds as clean and crisp as it is when you hear it. This is a real challenge for me because, you know, I'm just. I'm just a lawyer. I'm not really a podcaster. I'm definitely not an editor, though. To the one fella who sent me some constructive criticism over the summer. I got your note. Hopefully I'll do better. I downloaded a professional program. I'm going to use that, going forward, and hopefully it will help with sound and just the quality of what you're hearing. And hopefully, as time goes on, I find the right people or the right people come into my life to help me produce this content.
And, you know, as long as I keep getting the gigs to come and deliver keynotes and train you all, I should be able to afford to continue producing this podcast so that you can access it and continue to access it for free. The 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops we know, right? That's just the beginning. There have been other discoveries since then that have been reported in the media, and there will be more discoveries for a long, long time. There were many, many, many residential schools here in Canada. And so as people return to the sites of those institutions, there will be findings of the little ones who never made it home. And I'm sure we're going to hear a similar thing south of the border as folks start to explore the sites of the Indian boarding schools that the Native Americans were sent to. One of my worries is that all of this is going to break open old wounds, kick up all kinds of traumas, trigger people left, right and center like it did me. I mean, for a while there, I just didn't even ever think I was going to be able to speak again. And that was terrifying. I don't know, but I can imagine how hard this time is and will continue to be for survivors and for the children and grandchildren of survivors. And I really hope for them, for us, that there will be a great healing that takes place because we need it. And, you know, when I go and deliver training to people and they want to talk about reconciliation, I like to propose to them that we not focus on reconciliation and we focus on healing.
Let's talk about truth and healing. Because, you know, my conversation with Elder Garnet Angicom, ever since I spoke with him and, and that conversation is a few episodes back, you could go find it. I've been thinking non stop about the healing that we need as first nations across this land, as Canadians, as Canadians, and Indigenous relations. We need healing. And you know, I also think about my friend Harold Jaunzems can also go listen to that conversation maybe a little more than a few episodes back. And you know, when he said we don't need like five police members sent to the north where a lot of Indigenous communities reside, what we need are 500 trauma therapists. And so as all of these things are being revealed to Canadians, like the truth that Indigenous people have always known and a lot of Canadians are just waking up to, I just keep thinking, where's, where's the trauma therapist? Where is the healing? Where's the ceremony? Where is the focus on funding for healing? Where is that? I'm First Nations. One of my daughters is in therapy, and I pay out of pocket every month for her to go to therapy. And I know that, some of the stuff that she goes to therapy for is directly, or best defined as intergenerational trauma. Unfortunately, I passed down some things that were passed on to me in the way that I parented her. And so I pay for that. Unfortunate that I'm in a position where I can pay for that, but there are many, many others who are not. And so they go without. And there is a federal election coming up on September 20th, and I really hope that you give your vote to, to a party if, if any of them. I don't even know. I don't pay attention to politics, but if you pay attention to any of them, find out what their commitment is to Indigenous healing in this country and addressing all the trauma that's on the rise. And as these discoveries continue to surface, I've been reading this book by Thomas Hubble. I think, I hope that's how I pronounce his last name, Hubble. healing Collective trauma, a process for integrating our intergenerational and cultural wound. And I You know, if I could just read this book to y', all, I totally would love that because he's got so many nuggets of goodness in here. In one part of the book, he is quoting Eduardo Duran from Healing the Soul Wound. And, and Eduardo is talking about the research around historical trauma and its transmission. He says that there's evidence to suggest that not only is trauma passed down intergenerationally, but it's cumulative, very similar to vicarious trauma. He says that when trauma is not dealt with in the previous generations, it has to be dealt with in subsequent generations. Moreover, when unresolved trauma is passed on, it may become more severe and successive generations. I read that and it scares the. Out of me, like I'm doing the best that I can, but at the same time, it's frightening when I think about all the, all the cards that are stacked against Indigenous people in terms of all the hurdles we need to jump over just to be healthy, to be successful, to thrive. So that piece of research or those findings totally freak me out. So back to, this 215. The discovery of 215 unmarked graves at, in Kamloops and the discoveries that have been ongoing since then. There's something I want to share with you in addition to this little piece by Eduardo Duran, and it also comes from Thomas Hubble's book, because I'm, I'm reflecting now on the fact that, this year, for the first time ever, we have a new statutory, federal statutory holiday, the Truth and Reconciliation Day here in Canada, which is September 30, which some people, some provinces, some organizations are choosing to not observe. And so I'm not going to say a lot about that, but what I do want to say is this. For those of you who work in Indigenous communities, and, yeah, I'm thinking lawyers, police officers, judges, but so many others. For those of you who serve Indigenous people, it's a hell of a painful, time we're going through. And we are going to continue going through like, I don't know when we last caught a break.
There are so many things, whether it's racism in the health care system and people being terrified to just go to the doctor for fear that they won't get fair treatment, or, you know, the stories that we're hearing from the day schools and the stories that we will hear from the Indian hospitals and poverty and low life expectancy and intergenerational trauma and direct trauma, and the list goes on. What I would ask of those of you are really passionate about the work you do and are committed to this collective healing that we all need. I want you to think, think about, whether in advance of TRC Day or on TRC Day, I want you to think about how you can be a witness. Thomas Hubble says, whether individual or collective trauma fragments and fractures, it disowns and silences, it creates denial and forgetting. "To assist in its repair, we must choose to acknowledge, to witness, and to thereby feel together what has actually occurred. Even the most horrific details we would rather close our eyes to. Because to look away, to dismiss, deny, minimize or willfully forget, is to uphold the institutions of inequality, of humanity that created them." Powerful, right? Like that resonates so deeply. And so for those of you who are like, I don't know, like, what can I do? How do we achieve reconciliation? How do we integrate it into our organizations? Be a witness, do the thing that Thomas Hubble is calling you to do. Assist in the repair. Choose to acknowledge it, witness it, ah, feel it. Even the most horrific details, you would rather close your eyes, to open your eyes. We need to give a lot more time and effort and commitment and investment to truth before we ever begin to think about reconciliation. Pick up this book. It's pretty awesome. It's educating me for sure.
This is going to be a short episode cuz it's kind of my check in to say, hey, what's up? I know I've been away and I really have missed folks, I really have. Like I miss the conversations and I miss the feedback that I get when I release episodes and you know, just the deep level of engagement. I've missed that. And I'm so, I'm not giving up on this podcast. I just, I just needed a break. But I've come back to work and I'm back at doing this on Sundays. Today is September 5, 2021. I want to add, a couple things. One is I've decided I've been doing a lot of these like little training sessions. What started out as like a quick little lunch and learn turned into a two hour training, then a three and then a four and people were saying, you know, can you do more, can you offer more, do you have multi day training sessions, etc. Etc. And I had nothing. And I was, you know, between you and I, I was like really terrified. I'm like, who am I? Right, like kind of imposter syndrome. Like who am I? And like who would show up if I was to show up and say something? I really need to get over that because like people are Showing up. I know this because people are inviting me in. I'm happy to report at the end of October I'm doing a bit of a speaking tour on the east coast, which is super cool. Lawyers are interested, but not just lawyers. Now it's blows my mind. Doctors, teachers, police officers, support people, justice workers, legal advocates, administrators, unions, organizational leaders. I mean it just goes on. So back to the training thing. I've decided quite courageously because it's really taking a lot of courage, to put together a four day course on trauma informed lawyering or trauma informed practice for professionals, very specific professionals, people who are not care providers or support providers but need to be relatively objective. And I think day one we're going to talk about trauma and triggers and how we define trauma informed practice for our purposes and what it is that the brain's doing that's impacting communication and memory. I hope to have a guest from season one on my podcast, who has that background, psychological background, medical background, talking about trauma in the brain. And then I'm going to commit day two to talking about empathy, safety and empowerment. Right. What are some strategies for becoming trauma informed when we're working with clients or witnesses or why do we need to prioritize connection? Why is, why does connection matter? And what, you know, what does empathy have to do with what, what we're there to do? And then day three is going to focus on cultural humility as a pathway to accountability, achieving equity, and again overcoming cultural misunderstandings and creating some serious connection with those we've othered, even if that was not our intention just by practice or exposure or whatever. Then the last day is going to focus solely on vicarious trauma and vicarious resilience. We're going to talk about self care a little bit, but mostly collective care strategies. How do we take care of each other? What is the onus on us to take care of each other, to see each other commit to helping ourselves and each other stay strong in mind and heart as we do the hard and heavy work that we have to do. I know that a number of my friends who are wicked experts and know way more than I do, I know that they will show up and help me make this chorus phenomenal. And I'm going to deliver it over zoom and I'm going to invite folks from all over the world to participate, to register. They will have access. It'll be wonky with time zones, but I think it's going to be fantastic. And so once I get that in place and registration and fees and Whatever the scale is, because, you know there's going to be a scale, a sliding scale. you'll be the first to know because I'll announce it here and I'll have it on. On my social media. I want to also, in addition to saying thank you all for supporting my work and supporting this podcast and staying tuned and staying, you know, inviting me in, a lot of invitations have been coming, and it's really humbling, and I just. Thank you so much. So I want to just quickly tell you a little bit about what is gonna be coming up in future episodes, because, remember, I said to you, I have, a number of episodes that I was supposed to release, and then I kind of just checked out. So let me tell you what is coming up. I am having a number of. I had a number of really fantastic, fantastic conversations with some very insightful, wonderful people, and I cannot wait to share those conversations with you. Let me tell you what will be coming up in the next little bit. I am going to be releasing a conversation that I had with Winnipeg lawyer Maria Matusas. She, for those outside of Canada, maybe you haven't heard her story, but for most of us in Canada, I'd say we have. She is a family law lawyer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and she was in the news quite a bit back in, I think it was 2015, when someone had sent a bomb to her office, and it was in a letter that she opened, or it was in a package that she had opened. And as a result of opening that letter, she lost her hand. She miraculously and generously and courageously came back to the practice of law. And she has an incredible story to share, not just about that, but about some other things that were happening around the same time. And also a little bit about her commitment to mental health and wellness. She speaks quite a bit now on those things. She's very committed to talking with young, young people in the profession. And so, yeah, so she's coming up and she's going to be in the next episode that I release. So you want to stay tuned then. Judge Earl Lenoth. He is retired now. He was longtime Saskatchewan Provincial Court judge. One of my mentors, someone I respect profoundly and deeply. And I, just adore him because, you know, all the times I, appeared in front of him, he was always kind and he was respectful, and he has this quiet thoughtfulness about him that I just really. It's just a quality that I just love, love. Anyway, he. He was generous in having conversation with me about mental health and wellness. I'M really excited to share our conversation with all of you. And then I had a conversation with a young woman, Metis woman, Chantelle Sparkling Eyes. What a beautiful last name, right? Sparkling Eyes. She and I had a really awesome conversation about what the justice system can do to improve itself and become culturally responsive and trauma informed, particularly when they're dealing with victims of sexual violence and, or domestic violence. And, we had such an awesome conversation. She's so incredibly insightful and had all these awesome tips for people out there who are always scratching their heads thinking, how do I do better when I'm working with survivors. You've got to listen to my conversation with Ms. Sparkling Eyes because she has so much, so, so much good advice for all of us on how we can do better. And Judge Ginger Lerner Wren, she started the first mental health court in America. We had such a wonderful conversation. It was. My mind was like all of these, like, little fearful baby steps that I'm taking in my life when I'm engaging people in this conversation about trauma. For Judge Lerner Wren, I think it's. For her, it's just the expectation. Well, yes, you must be trauma informed. You must understand trauma. You must understand the role mental health plays in offending behavior and the likelihood for folks to not reoffend. And like all of this, it was such a cool conversation and I really hope to have her back because I know that our conversation was just scratching the surface. You've got to stay tuned.
There's a few others who I have agreed to have on my show, and I just haven't made time to interview them, but I will make time, and I'm really excited to continue engaging in these conversations and sharing them with you. Now, before I go, I just want to also say, recently I was a guest on another podcast called Two Crees in a Pod. That's C R E E S. two wonderful indigenous Cree women from Alberta, have this wonderful podcast. They're social workers and educators, and there's so much more than those things, but they're very committed to having conversations about trauma and healing. And they had me on their podcast recently. If you'd like to listen to that conversation, check them out. Two Crease in a Pod. And that podcast is everywhere. Everywhere. You find your podcast, it's there. Well, that's it for today's episode. I just wanted to check in and say I'm still here. I hope you're still there and still engaged. And I welcome your feedback, your ratings, your reviews, particularly on Apple podcasts. And I and any suggestions for future guests and ideas for shows. I totally welcome those as well. Be a witness when September 30th rolls around here in Canada, think about how you're going to be a witness and acknowledge what has happened and what is continuing to happen. And don't look away. Thank you all for tuning in to this episode and for sticking it out with me, waiting on me through the summer. I know it's tough sometimes because I was like hearing people say, when are you gonna send something, upload something?
Anyway, thank you for still being here and I look forward to sharing more content with you. That's my show for today, folks. Take care of yourselves. This episode Episode was recorded on the traditional ancestral unceded territories of the Squamish people. This larger territory is shared between the Squamish, Tsleil, Waututh, and Musqueam people.