How a long-fought battle with abuse and addiction led to an extensive social work career
Jack Penashue testifies for 3 days at the Innu inquiry in Sheshatshiu
Jack Penashue of Sheshatshiu says his childhood was filled with hunger and physical violence at the hands of his alcoholic parents.
When his mom and dad weren't drinking, he says, life was momentarily marked by laughter, safety and food.
Penashue spent three days sharing some of the most intimate memories of his life to a room full of people during the Inquiry Respecting the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System.
On the first day of his testimony, he told the inquiry he wanted to paint a detailed picture of his parents but didn't want to make them out to be terrible people — despite years of abuse, he said, they aren't bad at their core.
Sharing stories from his childhood is a way for Penashue to lay bare the often insidious effects of intergenerational trauma, something he's witnessed through his childhood, his own battles with addiction, and later through an extensive career in social work.
'I hated my parents'
Penashue uses the word "dysfunctional" to describe what his family was like growing up.
When he was seven years old, he says, he was already raising many of his siblings, making their beds, cleaning and cooking when they had food.
His parents emotionally and physically abused their children, Penashue says, and his father had a reputation in the community for being violent.
"We didn't have a very good life," he said. "I didn't love my parents growing up. I hated my parents to the bone."
After a childhood of trauma, Penashue says he eventually succumbed to addiction. He says he remembers the worst of it being marked by endless convulsions, so bad he could barely walk, shower or eat — he lost control of his body.
Jan. 21, 1992, was the day he says he turned his life around.
That morning, he said, he was watching a television program that detailed how addiction can affect someone's family and community. He described the moment as an "awakening," and soon after he called one of his brothers, telling him that he needed help.
In less than an hour, Penashue said, his brother got him a one-way ticket to a recovery centre in Windsor, Ont.
"I always knew that there must be a better life than what I had," he told the inquiry.
Penashue says he spent three months at the centre, and shortly after leaving, he continued to challenge himself. He says he began asking himself what could be done to help his community thrive and become more independent.
These thoughts propelled him into an extensive career helping others with mental health and addictions challenges.
He worked as an addictions counsellor, and after receiving a social work degree from the University of Regina in 2004, he worked as a community development officer and social worker. He was also the manager of the Child, Youth and Family Services Department for Sheshatshiu and Natuashish under Labrador-Grenfell Health, and the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation's health director.
He was one of the first Innu social workers and the first Innu raised in the community to become a social worker, and in his sobriety, he advocated for people who grew up in situations similar to his own childhood.
After his recovery, he also discovered something about his father that would change his understanding of intergenerational trauma.
Family first
Penashue says when he and his father had both been sober for around two decades, he sat down with him and asked his father why he became such an "evil" person when he was drunk.
His father told him he didn't have any parents growing up and that he was placed in the Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, infamous for its rampant abuse.
"I could put two and two together, that my father must have gone through hell as well, and he never told anybody," Penashue said, his voice cracking.
As a social worker, Penashue said, he never advocated solely for "child welfare." He says he primarily advocated for more family supports and services, because children are inseparable from the family unit.
Support systems in the province aren't built for Innu people, he says. Social workers in the community are assigned an overwhelming number of caseloads, forcing social workers to be reactive instead of proactive, or constantly be in crisis mode.
Penashue, who currently works as the superintendent for the Mealy Mountain National Park Reserve for the Innu Nation, says the Innu need to be in control of their own community, which includes understanding the unique circumstances that can lead to the intergenerational trauma and the importance of putting family first.
Once the Innu have more say in determining the direction of their own lives, he said, the community will be better equipped to deal with individual cases.
"I don't think I can change the process of where we are, how we got here," he told the inquiry. "But I definitely can support and still become an advocate and a lobbyist in supporting the Innu [to] become much more independent of the system."
"I for one will celebrate one of these days when the Innu people decide that they can actually run preventative programs on their own."
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With files from Heidi Atter and Labrador Morning