The Bristlecone Project is an awareness campaign of 1in6.org. Photographs and text by David Lisak, Ph.D.
Like most survivors, Graham struggles with the emotional legacies of the abuse he suffered as a child, growing up in northern Ontario. Sadness, anger, fear. Fear for the safety of his grandchildren, who grow up in a world that Graham knows can be harsh and unsafe.
The scars are deep. Graham, like so many survivors, has struggled mightily with feeling different, separate, alienated. The abuse he suffered severed his connections; with himself, with others, with his community. And the legacies infiltrated his life. As a father, he felt uncomfortable hugging his sons, wrestled with a feeling that he was doing something wrong. And he was an absent father, either away working, or away emotionally, drinking to numb himself.
But there is also a quiet strength in Graham, a strength that even Graham might not always recognize. The strength to confront the abuse he suffered, and its legacies. And the strength to offer other men, fellow survivors, the gift of his strength, to help them find it within themselves.
Graham found a refuge from the torments of his childhood in the forests of northern Ontario. There he found safety. And there, surrounded by trees and standing among their roots, he found strength in his connection with his own roots in the Ojibway nation.
Originally posted on 1in6.org
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