Grant: Project Grant

With the help of Elders and Indigenous families we will deliver and evaluate four main themed urban trail cultural events: (1) Full Moon ceremony walk/ride for girls, women and two-spirited people. (2) Land-based teachings will Elders/Knowledge keepers. Participants will receive land-based teachings about local territories/traditions from Elders designed to re-connect youth and families with teachings that could have been lost secondary to cultural genocidal activities or displacement to an urban centre; (3) Medicine teachings. We will work with NGOs to plant gardens, and/or traditional medicines in parks adjacent to the trails. Local Elders and Knowledge keepers can use these spaces for teachings, but local residents can also use them for ceremonial activities or community feasts, and (4) Youth-led teachings about local Indigenous cultures, languages and traditions. Schools will be provided with funds to engage a class or school group to learn from local Elders and design an event that highlights the unique strengths of Indigenous peoples in the province/region that are poorly represented in their urban neighbourhood (eg. in Winnipeg, Brandon and Selkirk partners have asked us to host events that teach families about Dene and Inuit cultures). We develop a curriculum and model for other cities/organizations to follow to design similar events to support urban dwelling Indigenous families across Canada