How this local hand drum workshop is helping Indigenous mental health

Several local Indigenous kids and teens are learning more about who they are through cultural hand drum-making for the first time this March break.

About a half dozen students were equipped with softened deer hide, wooden rings and loose string at a workshop on Thursday. It was at the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre(SOAHAC) at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation.

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"[Drum-making] makes me happy and not so upset," said 10-year-old Jordan Smith from Oneida First Nation.

The workshop, put on by the child and youth mental health and addictions program, is aimed at increasing the mental health of the participants, often living with historic trauma.

"This drum will be accessible to them on a daily basis," said Tisha Summers Grey Bear Woman, a child and youth worker on the reserve.

"They're able to carry this with them, they're able to use their own language, being able to use the songs and the rhythm and the drum beat.

"It could just really help them through maybe a certain situation they're going through, maybe if they're feeling depressed or anxious," she said.

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Farley Eagle Speaker, resident elder and healer at SOAHAC, helped teach the students how to assemble their drums. He's hopeful that one day, one of the participants can fill his shoes.

"The goal is to pass the culture down to teach culture to the next generation and to help them to be able to have the ability to show the generation after them the drum making and songs."

The participants are prepping for a birthing ceremony on Friday, when they will have the opportunity to use their drums.