Our Sacred Land (May 31 - June 1, 2019)
This Gathering was an experiential event where participants engaged in healing workshops and connected to the land. The guest speaker was Eugene Harry, who generously shared his Creation Story with us. We were also blessed to have two amazing dance groups join us: the Tree of Life Dancers and the Sasquatch Dancers.
Eugene's Creation Story
Drumming
Farley Antoine (Lekeyten) is an Elder from Kwantlen First Nations Band. He shared the protocol of the drum and some of his traditional songs.
Marshmallow Root Cough Syrup
Marshmallow Root is a herb that has been used as folk remedy for thousands of years to treat digestive, respiratory, and skin conditions. Yvonne Tumangday has ties to the Sts'ailes and Skokale First Nations. She went over protocol, traditional uses, and assisted participants to make and take home some Marshmallow Root Cough Syrup.
Cedar Project
Paula Cranmer-Underhill is Namgis and Nlaka'pamux and is proud to be carrying on in the footsteps of her Ancestors. Participants learned tradional weaving and created items to take home.
Rattles
Darren Charlie is a highly regarded member of the Sts'ailes people. During this workshop, he shared his knowledge around rattle making. Participants were able to make their own rattles to take home with them.
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Jonny Williams' background is from the Cheam and Swah First Nations. He learned the TPR technique at the Chief Atahm school in Chase, BC from Janice Billy. The TPR method utilizes hearing, seeing, and doing the actions to teach the halq'eméylem and any other second language. It was a fun and interactive immersion language experience!
Cotton Bud Salve
Jack McIntyre is a traditional Nlaka'pamux Elder and food & medicine harvester. In this workshop, Jack demonstrated making cotton bud salve and talked about traditional plants. Participants each took home a sample of the salve.
Medicine Boxes
This workshop, facilitated by Vanessa Hickman and Natasha Jones, was an opportunity for participants to go on a shamanic journey and create their own traditional medicine boxes.
Medicine Walk
This workshop explored traditional plants in the area. Tillie Charlie shared detailed knowledge of the traditional plants used by First Nations for food, medicine and cultural practices, along with protocol for harvesting plants.
Pow Wow Yoga
Shyama-Priya has been dancing for more than half her life. Her passion is teaching culture through movement. In this workshop she inspired participants to move energy through pow wow and yoga. Movement is medicine!
Guided Meditation
There are 5 elements that are universal in healing: singing, dancing, storytelling, ceremony, and connecting to nature. The natural world has been a source of personal wisdom for Indigenous people for time immemorial. Immersion in nature attunes us to our needs and intuitions. Using guided meditation, we explored our walk through self-awareness in that vital source of insight - the land itself.
Indigeneyez
This workshop focused around "circle and the box". It informed participants of the key components of the experiential excercise while also discussing historical information. Roles, responsibilities, relationships, and genders of the Indigenous circle worldview were reviewed. Communication, protocols, and politics of the traditional circle were also presented. This workshop gave participants the information and support necessary to use this experiential exercise creatively in their own unique ways. The facilitators were Kim Haxton and Jeska Slater.
