How Haisla are helping their own amid overdose crisis – National Observer

August 12th 2019

On a muggy Tuesday afternoon, Haisla First Nation member James Harry parks his burgundy SUV near Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and says a quiet prayer. Then he walks into the streets and alleys where he used to get high.

Harry is now five years’ sober, working with his First Nation in search of his own people in those same alleys. When he finds those struggling with addiction, his message is simple: “I’m here on behalf of the Haisla Nation. I want you to know that you’re not alone.”

One young Haisla woman responded by bursting into tears. “This person felt so alone and so lost,” Harry recalls. “She said, ‘I can’t believe my nation cares for me. I thought no one cared for me.’”

Read More: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/12/features/how-haisla-are-helping-their-own-amid-overdose-crisis