Gabor Maté set to draw a crowd 

The renowned author Dr. Gabor Maté is set to visit Kahnawake next week, a first for the inspirational writer known for his expertise on trauma and addiction.

His talk will be happening under a tent at the Sports Complex field on Thursday, October 24, with entry opening as of 8:30 a.m. The event is being hosted by Kahnawà:ke Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services (KSCS). 

KSCS’s post about the event on Facebook on October 3 immediately went viral, with hundreds of Kahnawa’kehró:non eager to attend. There were only 85 seats aside for community members however - all of which were snagged within the first two hours of registration opening.

“We are so happy about the community's enthusiasm about the event. You always hope that people are going to connect to the programming that you’re putting out. But this has been overwhelming, and we’re really, really grateful,” said Alana Kane, who organized the talk on behalf of KSCS. “It speaks volumes about our community.”

The director of strategic development services encouraged community members to email her if they missed out on reserving a spot, saying KSCS is looking to expand the number of seats that’ll be available. 

“We want to make sure that as many community members as possible can attend,” she said, saying people can reach out to her by emailing [email protected]. 

The day-long event will run until 5 p.m. and will include a surprise panel talk led by locals, a book signing, and time set aside for breakfast and lunch, she said.

The first half of Maté’s talk will focus on trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture, Kane said, with the other half touching on the biology of loss and how to foster resilience. All are themes he’s touched upon in depth in his most recent book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, a 2022 release he co-wrote with his son Daniel Maté. 

The former family doctor spent years working out of harm reduction clinics in Vancouver’s downtown east side, experiences that later went on to inform his 2008 release In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction, which went on to become a bestseller in Canada. 

“He came into contact with a lot of Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and he started to recognize a lot of them were suffering from trauma related to things like residential schools, even though they hadn’t all attended themselves,” said Kane, an avid reader of his work.

It took 18 months of negotiating with Maté’s team before they could agree on a date for the talk.

“His schedule is packed for years. He’s also 80 years old, so he doesn’t travel as much as he used to,” Kane said. “It just worked out right. He was already going to Boston this October, and he was willing and available to come up to Kahnawake after.”

Kane first made contact with his agent after approaching the author after a talk he gave at a trauma conference in Boston in the spring of 2023.

“I just said that we’re very much working on intergenerational trauma, the effects of intergenerational trauma, and what we might do to help with the healing. I guess he was really interested in what we were doing over here,” Kane said.

[email protected]