Gerry is a lifelong learner. After surviving Kamloops Residential School, he went on to gain training in traditional ways of knowing, being, and doing as well as in counselling and human services.
Traditional Education
Personal Vision Quests: 2002 (Coast Salish), 1995 (St'at'imc), 1975 (St'at'imc)
Vision Quest Assistant, 1980 and 2003-present (Coast Salish)
Six month residential program with Elders, Fountain, British Columbia 1979 (St'at'imc)
Ecumenical Conference for First Nations Healers, a week long residential program in ceremonies and teachings, Morley, Alberta, 1978
Sweat Ceremony Training, 1976 (St'at'imc)
First Nations Death and Dying Rituals and Ceremonies with Elders, 1976 (St'at'imc)
Traditional Skills
Ceremonies (sweat lodge, funerals, weddings)
Traditional Blessings (objects such as drums, ceremonial locations, structures)
Traditional Tools and Cultural Objects (dip nets, fishing spear, pipe stems, rattles)
Traditional Resource Use (fish and game harvesting and management, plant use, resource management including watershed systems, controlled burn areas, medicines, traditional preparation and storage of food)
Traditional Child Rearing Practices (parenting, name giving, baptisms, rites of passage)
Traditional Oration (traditional leadership skills, public speaking, decision-making processes, and protocols)
Traditional Grieving Practices
North American First Nations Legends and Mythology Recounting
Traditional Hand Drum Music (social and ceremonial)
Professional Development in Counselling and Human Services
Native Adult Instructor Diploma Program, 1994
Okanagan College, Kelowna, British Columbia
Management for Supervisors, 1989
Vancouver Community College, Vancouver, British Columbia
Management by Objective and Effective Presentation, 1985
Native Courtworkers Association of BC, Penticton, British Columbia
Addictions Counsellor Training, 1984
American Indian Training Institute, Los Angeles, California
Sexual Abuse Counsellor Training, 1983
Medical Services Branch, Health and Welfare Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia
Training of Trainers, 1982
Medical Services Branch, Health and Welfare Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia
Treatment Centre Program Development, 1980
Round Lake Native Treatment Centre, Vernon, British Columbia
Gestalt Counsellor Training, 1977 - 1978
Western Centre for Gestalt Education Calgary, Alberta
Alcohol and Drug Education, 1976
Nechi Institute, Edmonton, Alberta
Other Educational Experience
Painting and Decorating Pre-Apprenticeship Trades Training, 1970
Pacific Vocational Institute, Burnaby, British Columbia
Survivor of Kamloops Indian Residential School, 1968