Alycia Benson is the first graduate from the PhD in Health Sciences program at Lakehead University. Read more about her story below.

Alycia Benson nindiznijaaz

Ma’iigan Nindoodem

Biigtigong N’indoon-jii

Thunder Bay Nindaa

I am an Anishinaabe'Kwe scholar of Biigtigong Nishnaabeg (the place where the river erodes), Ma'iigan nindoodem (wolf clan), which is located off the shoreline of Chi-Gamig (Lake Superior). On my maternal grandmother's side, our relations are to Biigtigong Nishnaabeg; on my maternal Grandfather's side, we have ancestral relations to the James Bay Cree communities in northern Ontario. I also have paternal grandmother relations and connections to Europe. I am of both Anishinaabe'Kwe and settler. I live within a duality and diverse representation of identity. I am mindful of this, and to further decolonize the research process, I must be fully aware of all my relations beyond my Indigeneity. Being fully aware of who I am as a settler and Anishinaabe'Kwe has allowed me to walk in two worlds, see from two eyes, and share the knowledge I have learned with my family, who does not fully understand how settler colonialism influences everyday life.

Exploring Indigenous research approaches to understanding interconnections between substance use, healing, and Mino-Bimaadizwin: Conversations with Anishinaabek in Northwestern Ontario. Storytelling is a vessel for knowledge sharing. We are our stories. We live by our stories. Our children will remember us by our stories. This dissertation has been entirely situated in a storytelling space, and through that process, it must be understood to understand the storyteller's journey to healing from substance use. Storying is how I honour my late brother's journey to healing. Storying is how future generations will hear and honour his story through a relational model of understanding. 

This dissertation served as an unintentional healing for myself and others involved in this process of sharing knowledge. I am forever humbled by the stories shared and the healing. This dissertation is situated in a storytelling space. Through that process, the storyteller's journey to healing from substance use must be understood within that space and place. Storytelling is Spirit at work. Anishinaabek storytellers from British Columbia, Manitoba, Northern Ontario, and Southern Ontario reached out in various capacities to share their stories about healing from substance use. 

Storytellers often opened up with their trauma(s), pain, life experiences and how their path was shaped and reinforced through experiences of familial patterns of trauma(s), substance-based coping mechanisms and a cultural disconnect from community, culture, and sense of belonging. Storytellers were often born into pre-established patterns of addiction. These realities being accepted as their version of normalcy perpetuate notions around not addressing traumas but masking them through the active choice to engage in what people understand as protective strategies to ensure the trauma remains dormant and silenced and utilize substances to assist in this process. 

Despite the darkness and silence of trauma and collective pain, a brighter healing element occurs throughout this process. Mino-Bimaadiziwin is a subjective understanding of what is important to an individual and how they walk meaningfully to healing that feeds the spirit within. The land provides exactly what is needed to heal at that moment. Returning to our first mother is how we (re)connect. Healing is connection. For those on a healing pathway, Mino-Bimaadizwin is consistent with a sense of belonging and purpose to something greater than oneself. Healing is (re)connection to Anishinaabek Kaandossiwin. 

Thoughts and Reflections on the PhD HESC Program 

As I have openly shared, you must find and ground yourself in work that holds a significant purpose for you to do things in a good way. The HESC program is relatively new and has had some hiccups (i.e., consistent communication, student advocacy, documents, forms, and departmental 'next steps'). However, despite these minor issues that are not uncommon, the program adapted and changed as needed when needed. The faculty adapted to identified issues well and encouraged students to find their voices as academics throughout the process. 

I believe this program has allowed me to strengthen my voice and ability to stand strong for future generations of Anishinabek scholars to walk the steps I left behind. I acknowledge those footsteps that I, too, followed, which allowed me to claim even more space that they worked on holding before me. 

What are the next steps and journeying forward? This is a question that has often been asked to me since finishing my dissertation. I am working as a director of health data and information with the provincial government. I will continue to advocate for Indigenous faculty teaching Indigenous content within academic spaces.