Staff
Donna Dubie, Executive Director
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“Sometimes we got strap, sometimes buckle. No beating was ever under 50 strikes. I used to count.” Donna Dubie always believed that love was a hateful thing. It came with hurt, disrespect, violation and fear. The happiest times of her childhood are tainted with repercussions from her father. A story about dragging her first Christmas tree home for blocks to surprise her family ends with, “I don’t remember what happened that night, but I know my brother and I went to bed broken and our spirits bruised.”
Donna’s father Harry Battice (Harvey Baptise) left the Mohawk Institute (Mush Hole) Residential School a very broken man. On the outside, he was an alcoholic, angry, afraid, an abusive parent and husband. Like others who suffered from the trauma of residential school, his journey through life became stuck in a revolving door of loss, confusion and coping mechanisms. For years Donna would walk down the same path of her father, perpetually stuck in the kinds of relationships she had been taught.
“I was with a very abusive husband. He wasn’t quite as bad as my father, but he beat me on severely occasion. When I was pregnant with our third daughter, he kicked me square in the stomach. When he left us, I became homeless with my four children for six months. I picked up with another man who was more horrendous than my father ever was,” she says. “I thought I knew what my life was going to like. All I could see was the edge of a cliff and nothing but blackness below me. I pondered again about taking my life. I went to Toronto with a plan to commit suicide, having left my children with someone that I trusted. That is when I met Charlie again.”
Donna has been with her husband Charles Dubie for 35 years. He has never said a hateful thing to her. He has never physically, mentally, spiritually, or emotionally abused her.
“Creator puts the person that you’re supposed to be with in your path. Sometimes it’s not the person that you envisioned for yourself, so you put this person aside and carry forward. I knew my husband previously, but when I saw him again, I suddenly saw him differently. I understand now that he was a gift that that the Creator sent me.”
It took a long time for Donna to relearn the ways in which she viewed love. In finally accepting Charles, she moved through her revolving door of alcohol, abuse, and loneliness, to the other side where her healing journey began in 1990’s. In 2001, she founded The Healing of the Seven Generations, a Kitchener-based community centre to help bring the same clarity to her community. Every year Donna sees over 15,000 Indigenous people seeking guidance, hoping to break their cycle of suffering and embark on their own paths to find healing. She reminds each of them to accept whatever it is that Creator places in front of them.
“Every time you ask for strength, Creator puts a test in front of you. If you put that test to the side to deal with later and carry forward, Creator knows it. Further down your path, he will put another test, only this time it’s bigger. He will make it so big that you cannot go around it,” she says. “We have enough strength already. Ask instead for knowledge, understanding, direction and acceptance. This is what we need to move forward. Creator will show you.”
Contact Donna Dubie at donnadubie@H7G.ca
Renata Richards, Assistant executive director
Renata is a Mohawk woman from the Turtle clan and a mother of 2 amazing young men. Renata comes to The Healing of The Seven Generations after 21 years at the Brantford Casino. She is the oldest of 4 children, with 2 sisters and 1 brother. Her grandfather was a survivor of the Indian Residential School in Brantford known as the Mush Hole. Renata is very enthusiastic in learning about her culture and helping the FNMI community in her new role.
Contact Renata at rrichards@H7G.ca
Kelly Curley, Fire Keeper
Kelly Curley is Onondoga Beaver Clan and was born and raised on Six Nations Ontario Canada. He has been clean and sober for 27+years. Previous, Kelly worked at Native Horizons treatment center as a Junior Councilor for adults, Nimkee Nupigawagann Solvent Abuse Centre with Teenagers and in Corrections with both Male and Female Young Offenders and Adults. He provides Alcohol, drug and sexual abuse counseling along with conflict resolution, positive parenting along with roles and responsibilities.
Mr. Curley utilizes The Seven Grandfather Teachings along with Gyenalagoah (Great Law) teachings as well as the Creation Story, Story of Creation before Creation, Two Row Wampum, Hiawatha Wampum or Confederacy belt, also known as the peoples or family belt, Friendship wampum, Circle Wampum, Chiefs, or Family belt. Along with the Covenant Chain, Seven Hills of Life and Sweat-lodge teachings. Nyah Weh Sogwiendisoh.
Contact Kelly at kcurley@H7G.ca
Latasha Wilson, Youth COORDINATOR
My name is Latasha, is a mixed women. Latasha’s Spirt name is Women Who Knows Wisdom. Her mother is from the East Coast and is Mi’Kmaq. Her father is Jamaican. Latasha grew up in Toronto, she moved to Kitchener in 2010. Growing up in the city had its pro’s and con’s. The older Latasha got the more she knew that she wanted more for her and her child.
Latasha had to walk this path all on her own to be able to find herself and where she belonged. The road hasn’t been easy, but it has been the best thing she has done for herself and her daughter.
This journey has been a rough one, nevertheless Latasha knows that this is what she must do to be the best version of herself. In order to be the role model that her daughter deserves. Latasha is enthusiastic in learning about her culture and helping the FNMI community in her role.
Contact Latasha at lwilson@H7G.ca
Christy Gagnon, Cultural Program Coordinator
Contact Christy at cgagnon@H7G.ca
Raven Young, Administrative assistant
Contact Raven at ryoung@H7G.ca
Serena Wesley, Systems Navigation And Family Support Worker
Serena Wesley is Anishinaabe (Ojibway) Bear Clan from Saugeen First Nations, born and raised in Kitchener-Waterloo. Serena grew up in the foster care system and recognizes that she was lucky enough to be raised by a family who encouraged her cultural learning and exploration. Serena enjoys continuing to learn her traditions and cultural ceremonies, and share this journey with her children. She enjoys being a part of her nieces and nephews lives and is an avid animal lover. Serena has a diploma in Law & Security and enjoys helping people when ever she can, and she looks forward to working and helping her FNMI community.
Contact Serena at swesley@H7G.ca
Skyla Poll, Dehsahsodre Court support worker
Contact Skyla at spoll@H7G.ca
David Villada, Sound Therapist
Contact David at Soundtherapy@H7G.ca
Isabella boyd, General Support Worker
Contact Isabella at iboyd@H7G.ca
Mark Corbiere, Street outreach worker
Contact Mark at mcorbiere@H7G.ca
Partners
The Healing of The Seven Generations works with several healing partners to help our community.
Wendy Stewart
Wendy Sero Stewart is the sole proprietor of Tall Tree Consulting, a First Nations provider that works primarily with Indigenous Families who are involved in the child welfare system. Wendy is a Turtle Clan band member of the Bay of Quinte Mohawk. Her family located to rural Wellington County in the late 1960s which is where Wendy currently lives with her husband David, who’s maternal roots stem from the Gordon Band in Saskatchewan. The couple raised two sons who are now grown men and live in Wellington County.
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Wendy began her work in the child-welfare field at the tender age of 17. In 1973 her family opened one of the first Indigenous Young Offenders Group Homes in Ontario. The homes were owned and operated entirely by First Nations workers which was a rare service back in those days, as it still is today.
Shortly after their marriage in the middle of the 1970s, David joined Wendy’s work in the main home. As a young couple in their early 20s, Wendy and David had full charge of 8 youth, along with a fully operating mixed farm. This experience laid the foundation to Wendy’s work in child welfare today.
After leaving the group home in the late 1980s, Wendy has furthered her experience working with a wide range of social and legal issues facing First Nations such as child and family services, restorative justice, various land based and art youth programs, equine therapy, suicide prevention and Indigenous mental health. She has worked with both individual First Nations and Indigenous Organizations from coast to coast in Canada and the United States. Delivering information sessions, training and related presentations.
One of Wendy’s prime interests is to learn and understand Indigenous conflict resolution styles. Many of the group homes were located in predominantly settler farm rural communities. There were many misunderstandings with the local police, town and school officials, local shop keepers etc. The Mohawk approach to this kind of conflict is to host the “Creator’s Game”, or lacrosse as it was later called in Canada. Wendy would coordinate games between officials, town folk and the children and staff of the group home. The game was always feasted after and would end with a talking circle between all participants.
Today, Wendy helps Indigenous families navigate the child welfare system and sits on the provincial roster to facilitate Talking Circles between child welfare officials and Indigenous families. She is actively engaged in helping Wellington, Waterloo and Dufferin Family and Children’s Services become more accountable in their agency leadership and how they service families who self-identify as Indigenous. She has helped establish community protocols and working relationships between child welfare and Indigenous service agencies. Wendy is an independent First Nations provider that has a life-long commitment to improve the lives of Indigenous children and their families.
Louise Burns
Louise Burns is a Metis woman who sits in the North of her Medicine Wheel. She moved from Sudbury to the Kitchener area where she has lived for over 25 years. She worked as a Family Psychotherapist in a Cree and Metis community in Northern Alberta for 3 years before returning in 2015 to the Kitchener area.
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Since back in this area she works as an independent family psychotherapist , providing therapeutic support combined with Traditional ways and teachings alongside, The Healing of The Seven Generations. It is important to Louise to integrate and live teachings from the Elders and First Nation communities and she values heart connection.
Her Spirit, heart, body, and mind are committed to supporting the individual and collective health and balance, of children, youth, individuals, and families.
Learn more about our organization through the following links:
The Healing of the Seven Generations 