Leah Plaited Hair woke up in a hospital bed in November 2023 after being placed in an induced coma. She had no memory of the events leading up to it, but was told she had nearly died from an overdose.
For Plaited Hair, that moment marked a turning point.
“I knew if I stayed out there [using drugs on the street] I was gonna die,” said the 32-year-old Calgary resident, who has struggled with addiction for half her life. “That’s not the way I wanted to die.”
This December marks a full year of sobriety for Plaited Hair, who had tried to kick her addiction many times before. She credits the Red Woman House, where she has lived since March, as a key reason for her success.
The Calgary-based house is Alberta’s first recovery home specifically for Indigenous women, and one of the few such homes in Canada.
The home’s residents relapse at lower rates than is typical for recovering addicts: just 20 per cent relapse in their first year, versus about half of addicts generally.
People familiar with the organization attribute its positive outcomes to the house’s blend of gender-specific support, culturally rooted practices and long-term recovery structures.
‘A lot of creeps’
Red Woman House was established in 2020 by the Canadian arm of international charity Oxford House Foundation and Poundmaker’s Lodge Treatment Centres, an Alberta-based addiction treatment provider.
Alberta’s Oxford House, which receives funding from government and private donors, operates a network of recovery homes across the province, and the Oxford House model is also used in other parts of Canada.
Before Plaited Hair was accepted into Red Woman House, she completed Oxford House’s pre-treatment program, which helps participants transition from detox to treatment. While there, a staff member referred her to Red Woman House.
However, to be admitted, Plaited Hair had to complete two interviews — one with staff and the other with the house’s residents.
“We ask them lots and lots of questions — it’s digging deep,” said Stephanie Crofts, a program coordinator at Oxford House. “[Residents] need to know that they’re on the same path of recovery … [otherwise] it can cause trauma back and forth.”
Indeed, residents are empowered to decide not only who should be admitted, but also who should be evicted (if residents relapse or are disruptive).
Moving into Red Woman House — a cozy bungalow located in a quiet, residential neighbourhood just north of Calgary’s downtown — provided Plaited Hair with a needed change of scenery. She had previously spent a lot of time in Calgary’s Forest Lawn area, where drug and sex trafficking are common.
Red Woman House, by contrast, is a safe haven, Plaited Hair says. The home is outfitted with a security system and has six private bedrooms, accommodating up to six residents at one time.
“I’m not used to actually having a safe place to sleep at night … [before] I had fears of falling asleep, so I’d be up for days on end,” she said.
Plaited Hair and others say the residence also feels safe because its staff, residents and elders are all female.
“You can’t have mixed gender in early recovery,” said Leanne Froese, an Oxford House board member who mentors Red Woman House residents. Many of the house’s residents have experienced domestic violence, she says.
“They’ve always been afraid in their home because of maybe the drinking or the abuse,” she said.
‘Found my community’
Red Woman House also views cultural reconnection as an important component of recovery and offers programming to facilitate it.
Froese, for example, organizes monthly healing circles, visits to sweat lodges, and naming ceremonies for residents who were not given traditional Indigenous names at birth.
For Plaited Hair, a smudge box she received during pre-treatment allowed her to reconnect with smudging rituals, which became a significant motivator for sobriety.
“It’s disrespectful to the ancestors to smudge while intoxicated,” she said, underscoring how Indigenous rituals are inherently incompatible with intoxication and can play a vital role in recovery through cultural reconnection.
Red Woman House resident Ruby Campbell says she particularly values visits from Indigenous elders, who participate in some meals at the house.
“To have somebody that really cares, wants to listen to you and help you heal … I’m not used to that,” said Campbell, who grew up in foster care.
After overdosing twice and being robbed, Campbell entered detox at the Calgary Drop-In Centre, where she began methadone treatment. She then completed a treatment program at another recovery centre before moving into Red Woman House in January.
She has maintained sobriety ever since, an achievement she attributes to the house and her ongoing methadone treatment.
Earl Thiessen, executive director of Oxford House, says another important feature of Red Woman House — and other recovery homes in the foundation’s network — is that they have “no set time limit.” Individuals stay until they feel ready to leave.
On average, Oxford House residents stay 202 days, significantly longer than most programs, where a typical stay is between 30 and 90 days. A 1999 study shows longer stays in treatment reduce the likelihood of relapse.
Crofts says extended stays are also crucial for addressing the deeper context of Indigenous generational trauma.
“There’s more [than] just addiction — there’s the Sixties Scoop, residential schools, sexual abuse and mental abuse,” she said. “It’s very deep-rooted.”
Campbell’s nearly year-long stay at Red Woman House has given her the opportunity to put some foundations in place for long-term success.
She has found full-time employment and reconnected with her seven children — five sons and two daughters.
“I put my kids through a lot with my addiction,” Cambell said. “I thought I was a functioning addict … I was there, but I was never there.”
Similarly, Plaited Hair says she feels she has developed a community that will support her on recovery journey, at the Red Woman House and beyond.
“I’m all the way out here in this recovery community, and yet I was able to find one of my relatives,” she said, referring to a chance encounter with a cousin while participating in an Indigenous wellness circle.
“I feel like I found my Indigenous community again.”
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