SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, my name is Ginger OJ from Ginger's Batic House. Congratulations, Ginger. Tell me a little more. How does it make you feel getting recognized by your community? You're this week's community champion. I am so humbled. I am so honored. I'm grateful. Um I'm just grateful to be here. I it's surprising. I've been doing a lot of work of healing and I want to share what I've learned and maybe help others that are like me. I come from young parents up at by Gruard. And my mother, well, they were really young, like 14 and 16. So they didn't stay together too long. They tried and she just moved around trying to find herself. Um her grandma that raised her passed away. Um, we come from a background from of intergenerational trauma. Anyway, she was just trying to find herself. I try not to tell her story too much, but it's important because she tried so hard. She was always there, but she was so young and she needed guidance and she was always looking for something, seeking anything to help her. And she struggled with a lot of mental health and eventually addictions. And I lost her. I tried to help her and I didn't realize what she was going through until she was gone. I felt what she went through. I was like, Oh, I thought she was supposed to know everything, but she didn't. I didn't understand the intergenerational trauma. I didn't understand anything that she went through until she was gone. The loss of her, I ended up becoming a an alcoholic and other addictions. And I was lost for for many years. If you YouTube me, there's a time I fell in a well in Coachella. Like I was just lost. I just didn't want to live. I didn't want to be here. I didn't know what to do. I I tried to help others like her. Like I grew up in a Metis. I grew up with in Metis environments with my family. My family was amazing. Because I I don't wanna it's hard to tell my story and and point fingers at everybody, but it was just relating to other people's because they're a lot like mine, how we suffered or went through a lot of things and how we we got lost, I guess, including my mother. Eventually I went to treatment. My sister recommended treatment years after, and it was the best thing I did. It was the Indigenous Treatment Center. So I was able to connect with my culture. I was able to find tools to recover, find tools to heal myself, to understand. Just understand, like understanding yourself. That's why I always tell people we're like onions, like just peeling away the layers, and we're there. Thank you. I'm so grateful to be here and rise up. Everybody, try, get out there, do help others. That's what we need to rise up together. My story is about rising together, doing everything together, and I'm so I'm so proud of you all.