The Cultural Initiatives team works in collaboration with other Sunshine House departments to bring Indigenous teachings and knowledge to our participants.
Many participants are direct survivors or generational survivors of residential schools and the Sixties’ Scoop. The deliberate severing of Indigenous children from their families, communities, languages and cultures means that decades later as adults, survivors may have a complicated relationship with traditional teachings and ceremony. And living in the city, many Indigenous participants don’t have access to land-based activities.
The Cultural Initiatives team are often seen bringing smudging to MOPS, hosting drum-making workshops, and planning trips out of town for medicine-picking, fishing, and wild-rice harvesting.