S1 Ep 5 - Family and Relationships with Colby Tootoosis

Indigenous Families, Relationships and Parenting with Colby Tootoosis On this episode of the podcast, we catch up with new father Colby Tootoosis of Poundmaker Cree Nation. We wanted to talk to Colby about relationships, parenting as a new dad, and how he and his partner Andrea are transforming legacies of historical trauma into what they call 'uncontrollable love' for one another and for their new baby daughter. We shared stories. Colby introduced us to himself, and to the work he's been cultivating in his community over the course of his younger life. He talks about developing an awareness of our trauma in order to develop strategies for healing ourselves. We discuss lessons about parenting coming from our parents, and from our new family members, about a range of issues like expressing our emotions with our children. We unpack lessons from Colby's female relatives over the course of his life, and talk about the impacts that their teachings have had on him. We talk about working on the balance between the masculine and feminine within each one of us, and acknowledging our teachers. We explored lots of issues, but this conversation can be characterized by one of the questions Gerry had for Colby: what are the core issues facing Indigenous families in North America today? According to Colby it has something to do with attempted genocide, colonialism, colonial belief systems and paradigms of "how we engage and how we connect to children." Colby told us about what it was like to welcome his daughter into the community he and his partner live in while still coming to terms with grief over loss in their families. He was very generous with his reflections and his ideas, and opened up about some very deep issues and for that, we are grateful. We are very excited to share this conversation with you. "From the 10+ years of experience in working in the front lines of communities and organizations in the areas of crisis response, suicide prevention/intervention, grief and recovery, life skills programming, individual and group counselling, family support services, and with a back ground in evolving systems using new conscious systems principles and approaches in the area of leadership; my passion remains strong in working for social transformation with people and community!" - Colby Tootoosis To find out more about the work Colby does, you can find him at his website: http://www.colbytootoosis.com