Cultural Appreciation Webinar Series back by popular demand
By Rick Garrick
NEEBING— Blue Sky Community Healing Centre’s Cindy Crowe and Melissa Roberts plan to hold repeat sessions of two of their most popular Cultural Appreciation Webinar Series presentations.
The Reconciliation Action Steps presentation, originally held on Dec. 2, 2020, will be repeated on Jan. 29 and the Indigenous Spirituality presentation, originally held on Dec. 9, will be repeated on March 19. The webinars are held over the Zoom platform on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 12 noon and the repeats are held on Fridays.
“[In the Reconciliation Action Steps presentation], we provide you with information on where Canada is at with the Truth and Reconciliation— so what action steps have been completed, which ones are in progress, which ones haven’t been started— and unfortunately, their record is not very good,” says Crowe, executive director at Blue Sky Community Healing Centre and Red Rock Indian Band citizen. “We also provide tools for use for your organization, how you could take some steps forward towards reconciliation as individuals, through an organization. We provide tools for teachers to present this material in a classroom and we also share some actual stories of what people have been doing.”
Crowe says the Indigenous Spirituality presentation is “always very popular.”
“People are very interested in Indigenous spirituality,” Crowe says. “We go through a variety of different ceremonies or ways or mechanisms that people use with their spirituality practices. And we also focus a lot on your cultural identity. People are very interested in spirituality and what is behind it, what’s the history, and how are people using these ceremonies today.”
Crowe says the webinar series has been “really good”. She and Roberts, a retired teacher and member of the Blue Sky Community Healing Centre board of directors, previously delivered presentations on Being Indigenous: What Does it Mean to Me; Relationship Building; Taking a Trauma Informed Approach; and Seven Grandfather Teachings.
“For the last two, the numbers were up,” Crowe says. “We had about 20 people at each call so as we’re getting the word out it’s becoming more popular, and we’re looking at developing a separate series, probably to start in March or April.”
Crowe says the webinars run for about an hour, beginning with introductions, the presentation and then interactions with participants.
“We want to invite questions and for people to share experiences,” Crowe says. “I’ve heard from a few of the participants that [the interactions] is the part they like the best.”
Crowe says many non-Indigenous people are interested in learning more about Indigenous culture and communities.
“[The webinars] give people a safe place to ask their questions,” Crowe says. “We want it to be very fluid and have the conversation be organic and flow the way it needs to flow. To me, it’s the same as holding a circle — yes, it’s virtual and we can only see each other through the Zoom but people still get it—people will still feel that feeling and get how important and why it is so important for us to be sharing this education with everyone that is interested.”
Crowe says the participants include staff from the PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise as well as from companies, organizations and government ministries across Ontario.
“And we’re also working on an individual series with Science North,” Crowe says.
Upcoming presentations include: Medicine Wheel Teachings; Dealing with Lateral Violence in the Workplace; Drumming Protocols and How to Care for Your Hand Drum; Impacts of the Indian Residential School; How Can I Impact the Dialogue; and Land Use Planning, Then and Now.
Information about the webinar series is posted online.