Episode 1:
Our Communities; Our Healing

How can organizations like the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia support Indigenous healing in and beyond the justice system? What makes this work so vital? And what is the story behind this essential work? In this first episode of From Ceremony Up, we welcome Hugh Braker, Melissa Vabic, and Lara-Lisa Condello for a foundational conversation on how Indigenous peoples are both deeply impacted by and resist historic and ongoing colonial violence to imagine different pathways forward.

Episode 1 transcript (PDF).

Guests:  Hugh Braker, Melissa Vabic, Lara-Lisa Condello

Recommended resources from our guests on episode 1:

• Check out The Grandmothers. For the Next 7 Generations on YouTube for deep teachings and a discussion on how important it is to honor holistic approaches to healing.
• Gain a deeper understanding of how Indigenous resistance and restoration counters colonial harms through All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward by Tanya Talaga

Episode 2:
Where We Gather; Healing Comes 

How can we support healing and create wellness in urban Indigenous settings? What role do policies and the land play in seeing that healing bloom? And how can we turn to hope and keep pushing for change when faced with the reality of systemic colonial harm? In episode two, Lyana sits down with Ginger Gosnell-Meyers and frontline workers from the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia to explore these questions and more through their change-making work.

Episode 2 transcript (PDF).

Guests:  Ginger Gosnell-Myers, Melissa Vabic,  Aaron Mitchell, Ava Vargas, Lynn Power

Recommended resources from our guests on episode 2:

• Dive into Emergent Strategy, a book by Adrienne Maree Brown that offers practical advice for change makers that is grounded in lived experience as an activist with Black Lives Matters and Indigenous environmentalism.
• Check out Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations, a book by Richard Wagamese that offers personal reflections and teachings from Elders on how to gain strength, mourn effectively, find peace, and keep going with the important work in front of you.

Episode 3:
No Justice;
No Health

How can being together on the land and engaging in ceremonies and healing support transformational change for people who have experienced incarceration? How can we create futures that center Indigenous perspectives and experiences of health and justice? And what examples can we look to of this healing work in motion? In this final episode of From Ceremony Up, we hear from Dr. Nicole Redvers and Darla Rasmussen to explore these questions and more through stories that have inspired them as they fight for Indigenous justice and wellbeing.

Episode 3 transcript (PDF).

Guests:  Nicole Redvers, Darla Rasmussen

Recommended resources from our guests on episode 2:

• Continue learning from Dr. Nicole Redvers poignant insights through her book The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles.
• Learn more about the urban land-based healing camp in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada through the article Urban Land-Based Healing: A Northern Intervention Strategy.
• ‘Feel that connectivity’ by tuning into the musical talents of Fawn Wood.