![[Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations Flag]](../images/x/xa-hlsn.gif)
image by Sophie Rault
Last modified: 2018-02-14 by rick wyatt
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The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations is a Native American youth residential treatment facility which provides a safe and caring healing environment for all adolescents, and their families, in need. Our wellness program is grounded, daily, in balanced traditional, cultural and spiritual values and practices. These values and practices foster respect, honesty, generosity, strong cultural identification and hope for positive life changes. The Healing Lodge treatment program integrates traditional, spiritual and cultural values with chemical dependency counseling to create a holistic approach toward healing.
source: www.healinglodge.org
The flag of the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations, a native American organization dedicated to treating substance abuse in young people, is described by its designer, Sophie Rault:
"The Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations is dedicated to effecting change, by rebuilding strength and hope in young people afflicted by substance addiction.Graham Bartram, 30 December 2014
Hence the color and symbolic elements of my flag design reflect the Lodge's basic values of CHANGE, HOPE, and newfound STRENGTH. Derived from the four traditional sacred Indian colors - yellow, red, black, and white - the stylized medicine wheel symbolizes each person initiating a process of change or healing, aided and supported by the Seven Nations and the Healing Lodge staff - represented by the circle -- uniting to achieve that goal.
The small central cross denotes the following: A young person, who comes to the Healing Lodge suffering from substance addiction, has the inborn capacity to escape addiction; this is shown with the white half of the little central cross - a small flame, a spark of hope - embedded in the black area (symbolizing addiction or the young patient). When the person is healed and leaves the Lodge, there always remains a certain fragility - shown by the black half of the small cross in the white area (symbolizing change or the rehabilitated youngster) - a reminder to stay ever-vigilant and avoid relapsing into previous bad life habits.
Yellow stands for the HOPE of healing and change and the CONFIDENCE that the staff at the Healing Lodge, through their dedication and care, will aid him or her to conquer substance addiction. Red signifies the joyous rediscovery of new strength and zest for life in a drug-free environment.
From a slightly different perspective, an ailing young person (symbolized by black) arrives at the Healing Lodge in the HOPE (represented by yellow) of being healed and overcoming substance addiction. The person is transformed, undergoes a CHANGE in behavior (denoted by white), and starts a new life (red symbolism) full of unsuspected possibilities.
At first the young person has HOPE of overcoming a problem, then follows a treatment which causes a CHANGE in the person's behavior, leading to a fresh start in a life marked by new horizons.
A message full of optimism, which I hope comes across in this flag!"
