Mi'kmaw woman's backyard sweat lodge a place to gather and heal

Nestled in the corner of Margaret Labobe's backyard on the Lennox Island First Nation is a round, tent-like structure covered in blue and brown tarps. A well-trampled dirt path in the grass leads to a small opening that you'd have to crouch down to enter.

It's a Mi'kmaw sweat lodge. And while it might not look grandioseon the outside, what happens inside, Labobe said, is sacred.

"The sweat releases your thoughts or whatever you're into... It will help you, you feel that comfort."

Sweat lodges, long used by Indigenous people to release toxins and negative energy,have been part of ahealing journey for Labobe, who has overcome many hardships in her 70 years on Mother Earth.

She was eight years old when she and her siblings were separated from their parents on P.E.I. and sent to a residential school in Nova Scotia.When the school closed in 1967 and they returned home, their parents who had struggled with addictions had separated. Labobewent to livewith her father.

She said she felt isolated. Shehad her first of five children when she was 15. The first three were in and out of foster care as Labobe, who said she lacked parenting skills at the time, struggled to find support. She fell intorelationships marred with alcoholism, violence and abuse.

"I wasn't a very happy lady," she said. "I was angry with the world."

When Labobe moved back to Lennox Island from Charlottetown last February, she reached out to Junior Peter Paul of the Abegweit First Nation in Scotchfort and asked a favour: Would he build her a sweat lodge?

'It just releases me': Why this Mi'kmaw woman has a backyard sweat lodge

6 days ago

Duration 2:55

Margaret Labobe, an elder from Lennox Island, P.E.I, and a residential school survivor, talks about how her sweat lodge has helped her heal and why the traditional ceremony is important for the whole community.

Peter Paul had been building the lodges and conducting the ceremoniesfor years.

He remembers only decades agowhen these sorts ofMi'kmawtraditionshad to be done in secret for fear of being harassed by government or even thrown in jail. Now they are open to anyone.

Of course he would build one for Labobe.

"I enjoy doing this for people. I love my ceremonies, it's something that I really have to do, not only for myself, but for the people," he said. "There's people that rely on these sweat lodge ceremonies."

The sweat lodge is heated by the steam from water poured over hot rocks, called "grandfathers" by the Mi'Kmaq. The rocks are heated in a fire outside the lodge, then brought inside and placed in a shallow pit.

Participants sit in a circle around the rocks. They pray and sing. Sometimes Peter Paul will encourage them to scream: "Say what you got to say, get it out of your system."

I'll tell them try to find that connection, release whatever is bothering you and feel it in your heart.Junior Peter Paul

The whole ceremony lasts about three hours.

"I'll tell them try to find that connection, release whatever is bothering you and feel it in your heart," Peter Paul said.

"Use your heart. Let your heart do the thinking, not your brain, not your mind."

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It has worked for Labobe. She is sober and in a loving marriage with her husband, Rene Provencher.

Provenchersaid it's a "miracle" Labobe has been able to turn her life around.

"When I first met her she was still involved with addictions, but the last, I'd say about 15 years, the change is like night and day."

Now, she's considered a pillar of the community.

"She was even voted elder of the year last year. We were only here a few months and that's how strong the community felt about her," Provencher said. "It's incredible how active she is and involved in things in the community."

Labobe said she is happy and has a good relationship withher family, which includes her fivechildren, 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

"What had happened in the past, it happened. So right now I'm just being being grateful that I'm alive, that I have my little sweat lodge back here. It's like a second home."

And the small entrance to the sacred, tarp-covered second home in her backyard is always open to anyone who needs it.

"Sometimes you see people uptightor sick ...I would be glad to help them," Labobe said.

"I would love to see more people coming to the sweats, as much as they want, I would love to see them come here."

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.