Solstice Celebration & Ethical Space

I have very exciting news to share!  This month, after many months of walking the land and dreaming and planning, I’m pleased to share details for an exciting event that is being held in my community.  First, let me give you some background…  

For a couple of years, I have been working with Child and Nature Alliance of Canada, as a member of the facilitation team.  In this role, I have been learning about the concept of ethical space.  Ethical space is a concept of Willie Ermine, M.Ed.  Willie Ermine is an Assistant Professor with the First Nations University of Canada, from the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.  An ethical space is the theoretical space between cultures and worldviews, taking place when humans with different worldviews and cultures come together and acknowledge that there are differences between them, and make space for those differences.  If you would like to learn more about ethical space, I have shared resources at the bottom of this post.  

This concept has captured my attention and my curiosity.  I think about what I know about the history of the land I live in, and how one worldview has been dominant, imposing power and harm over other lived experiences, knowledge, traditions, culture and stories.  I have wondered about what it would look like to work towards creating ethical space for sharing within my community.  I wonder about the possibilities that may come from coming together to share in that way.  I started wondering about my local library, a hub that gathers community and offers accessible opportunities to all, as a place to support exploring this idea.

My library has been very open to exploring this idea, and a first step we took was to host a number of Outdoor Art Circles over this calendar year.  During these circles, our community came together to sing and share with each other in the land.  

The library has been open to continuing to explore this work, and this month, Raymond Bach, Manager of Programs & Community Engagement, and I have collaborated together with Hayley Williamson, a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island, to create a Solstice Celebration.  The event will begin with Hayley sharing a teaching about gifting the land.  We are then going to go on a lantern walk, and will return to gather around a fire and have a community sharing circle, where everyone in attendance is welcome to share what this time of the year means to them and their family, if they would like to.  I look forward to sharing my song “Lullaby for Tree“. This is a song I wrote for this time of year, a song to sing the land to sleep for the long, cold months ahead.

The hope for this gathering is that we are creating an ethical space for community members to listen and share, and that we are also centering Hayley’s voice and what she shares with us.

This event will be heartwarming, and I simply can’t wait! If you are interested in attending, you can register for the event HERE. I will also be hosting a workshop the Saturday before the event, to work together to create lanterns for the evening program. I hope you will consider joining us for that, too!

RESOURCES
If you are interested in learning more about ethical spaces, here are some resources to explore:
Willie Ermine: What is Ethical Space?
Willie Ermine: Ethical Space in Action
Chloe Dragon Smith: Creating Ethical Spaces: Opportunities to Connect with Land for Life and Learning in the NWT

FINAL NOTE: INTRODUCING JOY!
And finally, a little note about the poster.  You will see that the poster for this event features a sweet little feathered friend.  This is Joy, and she is a dear friend of mine.  Joy and I started to get to know each other in the thick of the first lockdown in Spring 2020, and she is inspired by a little feathered family who nested on my bedroom window sill and shared the joy of their life cycle with my family.  Today, I see her as a little friend who wants to support children and families in finding JOY in the land.  I think she is the perfect friend to support the work at Land Heart Song, and I’m really looking forward to bringing her into this space.  Please help me in welcoming Joy to Land Heart Song!!!