After being separated from his family at age 7, Edmund Metatawabin was assigned a number and stripped of his Native identity. At his residential school he was physically and emotionally abused. Leaving high school, he turned to alcohol to forget the trauma. He later left behind his wife and family, and fled to Edmonton, where he joined a Native support group that helped him come to terms with his addiction. By listening to elders' wisdom, he learned how to live an authentic Native life within a modern context, thereby restoring what had been taken from him.
