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The first Annual Day of Care & Healing took place virtually with the support of my coworkers at the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan Mental Health Team and Victim Services of Renfrew County.
For some of us who are staff and community members, this day was about realizing a dream of offering a community-led moment of healing. This day was an important chance to connect with Indigenous and non-Indigenous community members and show Renfrew County what services are available. The planning team worked hard to make this day possible with funds from the Department of Justice Canada and technical facilitation offered by Dpearce Productions, a First Nations owned business. **** Algonquin Elder Roberta Della-Picca **** opened our event by grounding us with Sema teachings and a mindful practice to reconnect with our bodies. My own session was about embracing the Winter Medicines in preparation for the cold nights ahead, followed by a chaga tea medicine tutorial. Tasheena Sarazin shared her beautiful music throughout our day and provided teachings on the power of using our voices. Joseph Pitawanakwat of Creator's Garden helped to end the day with plant medicine guidance for healing. We are so grateful to all of the partners who helped realize this day of healing and care and we are humbled at the response of attendees. There is no limit to what our community is capable of and we're excited to do it all again next year! **** Fraudulent Represenation: Roberta Della-Picca is not Algonquin or an Elder, associated with Pikwakanagan First Nation, or any Algonquin or First Nation community. This statement is made with informed genealogical research and personal/professional experience with raceshifting, identity fraud working in unceded Algonquin territory.
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2/6/2023 0 Comments Registration Maxed out
Like many of our ideas at Blackbird Medicines, this idea of a grief support group exploded unexpectedly with interest from across Turtle Island.
The awesome Indigenous Death workers who make up the Indigenous Death Doula Collective had an idea. An idea to offer some support over some of the most difficult months of the year. Why so difficult? December and January are extremely busy times for death and grief workers. For those who have lost loved ones, the holidays are a time of year that we think about their absence or maybe the traditions that are changed by their loss. It can be a time heavy with grief and sadness. With the holidays of 2020 on our minds, we created this offering for community with a plan to welcome 12 participants. We hoped we would get at least 8 people who wanted to come together to discuss grief and loss as part of the annual Winter Medicine teachings we offer. We could have guessed what would happen next. We didn't, but we could have! Within hours of the registration form going live our hopes were fulfilled with 24 registrations. We collectively discussed how to accommodate twice the amount people. A few more days went by and registration hit 44 people. We announced that registration was closed and our total reached 50. This time of year cold embraces most things in the north and these Winter Medicine offerings are a hug of warmth for spirits weary by months that have gone by. Some of us brace for the long nights and cold, others look to it as respite from the hurried expectations of the long, warmer days. If you missed out on registration for the December 2021-January 2022 Grief Workshops, please know that another opportunity will come! We're so excited for the upcoming January release of our Indigenous Death Doula Training and Certification program and know that NDN country has been waiting patiently too! |
About ChrystalMy name is Chrystal Toop and I am a member of the Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation and am Anishnaabe, French & Polish. Archives
March 2025
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