Former nurse practitioner Julie Lys is officially retired, but she still spends much of her time helping people heal, thanks to her part-time role as the NWT M茅tis Nation鈥檚 (NWTMN) Healing and Wellness Program coordinator.

鈥淭he majority of work that we鈥檝e done so far is with women,鈥� the Fort Smith resident said from Costa Rica, where she has spent part of the winter with her husband. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been recently trying to increase men鈥檚 presence and programs, but for the most part it鈥檚 been women, and we find a lot of times when women start to heal, so do their families.鈥�

Lys, who is M茅tis, joined the NWTMN in 2016, driven by 鈥渁 desire to do healing and wellness from an Indigenous perspective.鈥�

鈥淚 tried to bring a lot of that into my practice as nurse practitioner, but I really realized it was two different systems,鈥� said the mother of two and grandmother of three. 鈥淲hen I retired I approached the M茅tis Nation.

鈥淚 approached Ursula [Vogt], the executive director, and asked her if she could put a call out there to see what money was available for healing and wellness, and that鈥檚 how I started.鈥�

Lys admits her programming 鈥渟tarted really small,鈥� but in the years since, she and her colleagues have helped deliver a number of important programs for people across the territory, many of which are directed at women.

That includes popular monthly full moon ceremonies, as well as on-the-land fasting ceremonies.

鈥淲e have a full moon ceremony every month,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a woman鈥檚 ceremony where we gather on a full moon, and we gather around a fire. We usually start the ceremony at sunset. The fire is started by a man, and then they leave, and then the women gather and we just share our stories. We share teachings, and it鈥檚 just a time for women to gather and give each other strength and fellowship.

鈥淥ne other powerful thing we did is we had fasting ceremonies,鈥� she added. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just for women, but it was all women [who participated]. Every year we would go out on the land for four days with our Elder Aline LaFlamme, and we would fast. That鈥檚 the time that we spend for ourselves, to look at our own life experiences and do some healing.鈥�

鈥楪reatest compliment鈥�

Practices like full moon ceremonies and fasting 鈥渨ere almost lost through colonization and the history of residential schools,鈥� according to Lys.

鈥淏efore colonization and before the churches arrived in the North, we had our own ways of healing and our own ways of being. Reviving part of those ceremonies and those ways of being, those ways of gathering and looking after ourselves and each other is what we鈥檙e trying to do with the healing programs.

鈥淲e are working hard to kind of revive that with the Elders that come forward to work with us, just to give us our own strength and let us stand in our own power as Indigenous women. Our Elders tell us when one generation heals, it heals the seven generations before us and the seven generations after us 鈥� it changes the way they are.鈥�

While Lys is motivated by a desire to help other Indigenous women heal, she said she derives immense personal satisfaction from her work, and is often moved by the feedback she receives from the people who participate in her programming.

鈥淚 had the greatest compliment when one young woman came to me and said, 鈥榃hatever you did with my mom, that鈥檚 what I want you to do with me,鈥欌�� she recalled. 鈥淚鈥檓 like, 鈥榊our mom did her own work. I helped her, but she did her own work, and you can too.鈥� But she just saw such a change in her mom that she wanted to be like that.

鈥淲hen I see the change in people, it鈥檚 hard to even put it in words,鈥� she added. 鈥淭o do the work and to lead people this way, I had to do my own healing work. I participated in all the ceremonies and fasting and did my own work, because you can鈥檛 really take people where you haven鈥檛 been yourself.鈥�

Like many women across the NWT and Canada, Lys is looking forward to International Women鈥檚 Day, which falls on March 8 each year. She called the day 鈥渁 time for us to celebrate our strengths and our accomplishments and recognize each other and think about who inspired us.鈥�

When asked about her sources of inspiration, she was quick to credit her mother and older sisters.

鈥淢y mother was just a wonderful, kind person,鈥� she said. 鈥淪he was kind to everybody and gave everybody a second chance and no matter how hard things were for people, she could see the good in everybody.

鈥淢y older sisters were very inspiring too,鈥� she added. 鈥淥ne sister had a master鈥檚 in social work in 1973. As an Indigenous woman, that was unheard of. My other sister was a teacher, and they just led the way. When we sit and talk about it now, all the struggles we had as Indigenous women working in a western model of society and trying to speak up and find our way, it wasn鈥檛 easy. It wasn鈥檛 easy for any of us, but somehow we made it through.鈥�