The MLTC is hosting it's “The Power of Connections” 2025 Men’s Gathering in Saskatoon from Jan. 21st to 23rd. (Submitted Photo/Meadow Lake Tribal Council)

By Austin Mattes

Healing journey

“There’s a stigma that we can’t be soft”: MLTC hopes to create change through Men’s Gathering

Jan 16, 2025 | 10:05 AM

Weak. Soft.

Those two simple words have often been used to describe an illness, but not one of the body, instead, one of the mind. In the case of some Indigenous men, merely for speaking out about their struggles around mental health.

Even with Indigenous males between the ages of 15-29 having the highest rates of suicide of any group in Canada, the belief that men must be tough still exists.

“There’s a stigma that we can’t be soft…that’s how we hold everything inside of us, we store our hurt until it hurts us, it’s just the way we’re built… we’ve got to change that,” said Cree Vice Chief of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC) Richard Derocher.

Derocher then explained how this came to be.

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“I was taken aside by a couple elders and they were both residential school survivors…they said they were not treated right and if you cried when you got the strap, they told you to quit crying, quit crying… so, it’s generational, taught over 100 years ago by the era of residential school. It was taught to us, to not cry, to not show your feelings. That’s where we got that mentality from.”

However, with mental health now at the forefront of a lot of discussions surrounding health in general, the MLTC is providing an avenue for Indigenous men to come together to heal and address these issues of mental health.

From Jan. 21 to 23, the MLTC is hosting its annual “The Power of Connections” Men’s Gathering in Saskatoon at Prairieland Park, with the focus being on topics of addiction recovery, healing, and mental health.

“The main goal is to have that sharing, that collaborating amongst each other and letting people know that we’ve all been through this. No matter where you are in your process, there’s steps that you have to go through to achieve wellness in their healing journey.” Derocher said.

“We have different speakers, people that have experienced different kinds of trauma and how they got out their trauma and how they got to where they are today.” He added.

Even with the events like this though, that are focused on helping indigenous men heal, the effects of the generational trauma have been so severe that even now it’s still difficult for many to take that first step to overcome the stigma.

When asked about how to encourage people to start their healing journey and attend the event, Derocher said this.

“Listen to your spirit, your spirit knows, follow your spirit, don’t follow your human mind. Your spirit is inside you, your human mind is different than your spirit, your spirit says let’s go, follow your spirit.”

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Austin.mattes@pattisonmedica.com

On X: @AustinMattes