OUR STORIES

OUR TRUTHS

Our Stories Our Truths (OSOT) is an Art-As-Healing program dedicated to creating a safe space for urban Indigenous youth to connect with and build meaningful relationships with mentors in the Indigenous community.

Disconnection from culture and ceremony is a common thread woven between our contemporary realities and colonial “history”, particularly within the experiences of Indigenous youth, who often experience intergenerational trauma and who experience difficulty accessing ceremonies or one-on-one time with elders and other respected mentors within the community (specifically in an urban context).

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As we navigate the Truth and Reconciliation era, it is becoming increasingly obvious that reconnecting Indigenous youth to their oral histories, cultural teachings, ceremonial protocols, community stories, and decolonized understanding of governance and land-based learning reminds them of their inherent right to obtain and maintain knowledge and allows them to find pockets of healing in a painful colonial world.

OSOT aims to provide the opportunity for youth to bring all of this together in a visual culture, exploring art as a core strategy in dismantling the colonial systems that have harmed many of our generations.

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In a series of workshops, OSOT links various medicine people, educators, knowledge keepers and artists from diverse Indigenous nations across Turtle Island to urban Indigenous youth, to share teachings that will ultimately aid in healing, reconnection and decolonization.

- Chief Lady Bird

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Applications will open August 2019 - stay posted.