Community Leaders and Funders cut the cedarbark ribbon to officially open Kackaamin Family development Centre. (David Wiwchar Photo)

By David Wiwchar

PORT ALBERNI – The Kakawis Family Development Centre on Meares Island is no more - officially replaced Friday by the Kackaamin Family Development Centre in Port Alberni.

Located in the former Beaver Creek Elementary School, Kackaamin was 10 years and more than $6 million in the making according to Board Chairperson Lisa Charleson.

“This project has been a long time in coming, and I’m filled with emotion today,” said Charleson. “In this new era of Residential School healing and the upcoming truth and reconciliation process, many traumatized people are looking to heal themselves, their families, and their communities. We’re really hopeful we can move forward to make our communities healthier, happier places,” she said.

Kackaamin is one of three full-service healing centres in Canada addressing Residential; School issues, drug and alcohol addictions, and the sources of other types of abuse.

Behind the refurbished school building and gymnasium, in what once was the sports field, 14 housing units and two youth dormitories have been constructed for the clients who will soon begin their healing journeys.

“We have a lot to be thankful for today,” said Barney Williams Jr., who recently celebrated 44 years of sobriety. “How fortunate are the people who will come through this place on their paths towards a better, healthier life,” he said.

“When you walk into any building, and any room in this facility, you can feel the love and power of the work that has gone into Kackaamin, and the important healing that will be happening here,” added Alberni – Pacific Rim MLA Scott Fraser.

An official opening celebration in the gymnasium was a chance to salute the many people and organizations involved in the building of Kackaamin, with Gordon Dick carved paddles presented to Ann Howard from the BC Aboriginal Housing Initiative, Port Alberni acting-mayor John Douglas, Brother Tom Cavanagh from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Karin Kirkpatrick of the Real Estate Foundation and many others.

West Coast First Nations art blended with black, red, white, and yellow balloons representing the colours of the medicine wheel, representing the beliefs of eastern Native groups.

Kackaamin helps both Native and non-Native people from both BC and beyond. People are referred to the facility by alcohol and drug counselors or mental health workers, and the $40/day costs are covered by Health Canada, the BC Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance, or through employee benefit packages, according to Kackaamin Executive Director Sadie Greenaway.

Kackaamin was borne out of the Residential School era. When the Catholic Church closed Christie Indian Residential School on Meares Island in 1971, two west coast Oblates lobbied for the facility to focus on healing. When the former Residential School building burned down a few years later, the insurance money paid for construction of a newer building that saw thousands of people come through its doors on their paths of personal healing.

“I know it takes a lot of work to pull together something like this,” said Cindi Stevens from the Aboriginal Housing management Association. “Our families and our communities thank you for all your hard work. This is a model for what we can do for the future,” she said.