Description
Resolve: The Story of the Chelsea Family and a First Nation Community’s Will to Heal, is the personal life story of Andy and Phyllis Chelsea written by Carolyn Parks Mintz at their request. After meeting at the church run residential school St. Joseph’s Mission School in William’s Lake, B.C. Andy and Phyllis, like thousands of other Indigenous peoples in Canada, experienced ongoing difficulties. After marrying in 1964, the trauma of their mission school years began to destroy their marriage and family. They decided on sobriety and embarked on a lifetime of activism. Andy was Chief of the Alkali Lake Esk’et Nation and the Chelseas worked to eradicate alcoholism and took steps to overcome intergenerational trauma that existed for the people of Alkali Lake. Their efforts and the story of the perseverance of the members of their community have inspired Indigenous groups facing similar challenges throughout the world. Simultaneously a celebration of strength and a condemnation of systemic racism, Resolve calls for a closer look at the status of Canada’s reconciliation efforts from the Chelseas’ perspective.