Hase' - Breath of Life Series
DESCRITION
This initiative explores Land-Based Culturally Rooted approaches to healing addictions and trauma. We will learn about trauma theory and explore the importance of creating safety in relationships. In this work we see addiction as a response to trauma, which for us as Indigenous people stems from 500+ years of attempted and ongoing colonial genocide
We utilize Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw land-based Culturally rooted practices, our breath and bodies as tools for self regulation. This work also explores harm reduction as an act of resistance to the opiod epidemic.
Delivery Options:
The program was developed as a 12 week program that meets for 3 hours per day, once per week, ove the span of 12 weeks. The program can be delivered in a variety of formats :
- 1 day
- 3 day
- 5 day
- 12 week
Indigenous Wellness Series
This 4 part series offers education on some modern faces of colonialism we are faced with as Indigenous people. We explore concepts of Indigenous land based healing methodologies and offer land based experiential, breath & embodiment practices to start integrating these ways of being into our life for wellness and balance. In this work, we see states of embodiment and mindfulness practices as an act of resistance to the wounding of colonization. Each session is 3 hours long.
- Session 1 : Impacts of Trauma & Creating Safety in Relationships
- Session 2 : Reclaiming our Indigenous Gifts
- Session 3 : Neuro decolonization & Land Based Healing
- Session 4 : Suicide Prevention from an Indigenous Lens
Reconciliation
These Reconciliation workshops offer non Indigenous folks education around the history of Colonization & Residential Schools in Canada & the ongoing impacts felt by the First Peoples of this land. Participants will learn strategies and tangible tools for how they can hold space in for BIPOC folx as an Ally. We will explore how we can stand in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples across turtle Island in our fight for justice against the ongoing impacts of colonial genocide.
Breath, Embodiment & Land-Based Cultural Empowerment
Indigenous Peoples were systemically separated from our identity, land, culture, families, and languages. This systemic separation can be seen in many of the modern faces of colonialism (overdose crisis, MMIWG, suicide & incarceration rates). One of the ways forward as an anecdote to the wounds of colonization is healing in the context of relationship: relationship to our identities, our families, our communities, our breath, states of embodiment, the land and our cultures, and safe people. These workshops offer the opportunity for healing through the context of relationship to all the aforementioned. This is done through teaching drumming, singing, dancing, medicine harvesting, breath & embodiment practices rooted in yoga tools, and weaving. Education on the impacts of trauma, and how these traumas impact our safety in relationships are explored.
Cedar Bark Weaving Workshops
Nalaga’s work with cedar is grounded in decolonization. Cedar has given her a connection to the land and deep respect for Indigenous identity. Her desire is to help others connect to the land as a way of moving forward in the direction of decolonizing ourselves. Nalaga fuses age-old techniques with modern style to create products that can be shared with the world. Her jewelry, baskets, and hats represent an important continuation of the ancient legacy of Northwest Coast woven adornment. Nalaga’s weaving workshops bring forward positive energy and imagery from our ancestors. She respects and protects the gifts that come from the spirit world and is dedicated to passing them on to future generations. Participants will leave the workshop with an in-depth understanding of cedar bark weaving including its spiritual, cultural, and historical importance in Northwest Coast Indigenous Cultures, and the technical skills to weave cedar bark and carry on our sacred tradition and practice. Cedar weaving is a mindfulness practice that can help us to cultivate wellness for ourselves, our community and the generations that will come after us.
Relapse Prevention from an Indigenous Perspective
Relapse Prevention from an Indigenous Lens offers education around the root causes of addiction and mental health issues for Indigenous folks across turtle island. We look at the intersections of addictions as a response to trauma, stemming from the wounds of colonization. Substance use is seen as an attempt to regulate our nervous system regulation. In this program we look at other ancestral land based modalities to regulate our nervous system. We reclaim our Indigenous Gifts by decolonizing our body, mind, and spirit through our Land-Based Cultural Practices. We also explore utilizing our breath and states of embodiment as acts of resistance to the impacts of colonization.
Suicide Prevention from an Indigenous Lens
In this workshop, suicidality is looked at from an Indigenous social justice lens, stemming from the wounds of colonization . We move away from seeing it as something broken within the individual, but a reflection of the brokenness and invisible systems of oppression that drive the world we live in. We will explore how we can resist the spirit of suicidem by utilizing our breath, bodies, land, and culture as forms of self regulation.
Cultural Safety Training for Health Care Providers - Healing through Land & Culture
In this 1-hour session, Nalaga will share her story of transformation by highlighting the intersectionality of colonization, systemic separation from Indigenous identity, land & culture, and mental health & addiction struggles that come as a result of these facets. We will explore Ancestral land-based healing modalities that Indigenous folks can engage in to regain a sense of balance in body, mind & spirit, as an Act of Resistance to the attempted and ongoing impacts of colonial genocide. Health Care Providers will learn about the power they have to create safety in their therapeutic relationships with Indigenous peoples, and learn tangible tools for offering culturally safe care to First Peoples of the land.
Cultural Safety Training Goals:
- Learn tangible tools for offering culturally safe, transformative care to Indigenous peoples
- Highlight the intersectionality of colonial genocide and loss of connection to identity, land, and culture as a way to create empathy and dismantle racism in the health care system
- Strengthen our knowledge of Indigenous land based healing modalities and how these practices can help Indigenous folks to regain a sense of balance in body, mind and spirit
- Connect with the power we have to positively impact the health & wellness of Indigenous peoples through offering culturally safe health care
Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ Edlers Hat Weaving
I want to acknowledge June Johnson, Theresa Wasden, Violet Grey, Georgia Berg, Dick Joseph, George Hunt and Ethel Cliffe, for the time, dedication, love and energy they put into weaving their first cedar hat. These beautiful, strong, resilient We Wai Kai & We Wai Kum Elders do so much for our community. They are Mothers, Fathers, Leaders, Grandmothers, Grandfathers, Hereditary Chiefs, Knowledge Keepers, and the backbone of our culture.
Honoring our Ga̱nga̱nana̱m
Last summer I worked with a group of Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ Youth to weave around a residential school desk. The desk held the darkness of canada's colonial genocidal and represents what has been done to our people. I carry the deepest gratitude for Toni Frank supporting this work and helping with the weaving poriton, my Aunty Verna Wallace for sharing her story of attending St.Mikes residential school and Irene Wydness and Alberta Billy. I also want to thank the brave and courageous youth who came to work on this project. The strength of these young people is unwavering. Wanting a positiv4 future for our young people is what drives the work I do.
The cedar is a representation of the strength of our people and ourr spirit. Each peice of cedar represented the ga̱nga̱nana̱m we lost in the genocidal torture institutions callled residental schools, and the strenth that our culture holds to keep us thriving as a people. They tried to eliminate us, and it didn't work. We are still here, and will continue to be here until the end of time. I am honored that this woven residential schools desk is part of the a social justice art exhibit at the campbell River art gallery alongside Corrine Hunt, Skeena Reece, Hjalmer Wenstob, Sonny Assu and Charles Jules