Project: Multi-generational Wisdom Councils for times of Crisis

Living courageously and kindly are perhaps among the human deepest callings of our times. The courage to open our hearts and minds to ‘what is’. It requires a kind of fierce-heartedness and kindness towards ourselves and others to truthfully engage together about how we can live our best human lives in these times. Perhaps it boils down to two questions: What is to be given up? What is to be taken up? As time passes many of us are increasingly aware that the global pandemic that we have come to identify as being the cause of so much suffering and grief, is yet another teacher. This is our latest call from Mother Nature for us to return home. She has tried to reach us with so many voices over the decades – whether it be the shriek of the raging hurricane, the surrender of the land to seas, or the searing heat of the raging bush fire as it extinguishes life.

Through COVID19 Mother Nature has sent yet another a clear and potent reminder. It’s time to come home, to live in our best integrity with all the other kin – human and more than human - who are also part of the only home we have. As children of Papatūānuku (The Earth Mother), we humans are part of a large family - our humble place is as the Potiki or youngest. In Te Ao Maori, the Maori world, it is said, that the potiki however, also often has a special gift for the future. Well, let’s apply that gift – lets bring the hearts and minds of our human generations together, in Council.

The Alliance for Intergenerational Resilience is partnering with Vancouver Island University (thanks to Danielle Alphonse, Cowichan Tribes and AIR Board member) to run two Multi-Generational Wisdom Councils. Each virtual gathering will bring together the wisdom and insights of Elders with the different generational experiences and insights of younger people, including youth. Engaging the energies of heart, head and hand (spirit, mind and practical doing) we will hold two international Multi-generational Councils.

The first "The Language of the Land" will ask "what does it mean to be of place in these times and how can Indigenous languages help us on this journey?"

The second, "Indigenous intergenerational resilience in times of climate crisis" will ask "what are the Indigenous and traditional perspectives and practices that can strengthen intergenerational relationships and resilience in these times of climate crisis"? Each council will begin with the perspectives offered from invited Elders and younger people with the circle then opened to anyone who wishes to speak. As each Council deepens, we will allow space and depth necessary to process the challenges of our reality as we move forward to envisioning Indigenous, intergenerational and intercultural practices of multi-generational resilience for our times.

Project: The Cree Medicine Wheel and a De-colonial approach to Healing and intergenerational resilience with Immigrant and Refugee Communities in Toronto

Indigenous and racialized migrant and refugee women and their communities encounter many common challenges as a result of historical and current forms of colonization. Immigrant and refugee women often arrive in Canada already in a state of internal colonization and for a variety of reasons, holistic views of wellbeing tend to be suppressed.  Living in Toronto, these urbanized communities have no access to their traditional lands (if they had any in their homelands) or to land where they are able to nurture holistic ways of being well (Williams and Hall, 2014). Furthermore, adherence to Western models of treatment maintains the colonization process (Linklater, 2014).

Here are some of the questions that some immigrant and refugee women are asking about how they and their families can decolonize, heal and belong?

AIR is partnering with the Riverdale Immigrant Women’s Centre and the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto to develop Indigenous-grounded systems of healing and development to help immigrant and refugee communities address these questions of intergenerational resilience. Through the application of the Cree Medicine Wheel and informed by the teachings of Elder Herb Nabigon, we have developed two frameworks or medicine wheels which are intended to be adapted from context to context and are applicable at individual & family, and community & organizational levels. Each medicine wheel has complementary strengths.

The Individual and Family Healing Medicine Wheel is grounded in the everyday realities of service users and is aimed at individual and family healing and capacity-building. The community and organizational change medicine wheel provides a larger-scale means of capacity-building in that it is intended to: 1. facilitate ongoing conversations between Indigenous and immigrant and refugee communities to strengthen and refine the Individual and Family Healing Medicine Wheel, and 2. facilitate community capacity building to challenge colonial approaches to immigration and settlement. Together with our communities we are in the process of evaluating and refining what we have developed. We are excited about this project and look forward to sharing more with you in the months to come.