Brandon Friendship Centre: Reconnections to OUR Culture
Ontario Akwesasne, March 6, 2026
For more than 60 years, the Brandon Friendship Centre has served as a place of belonging for Indigenous people in the region a space grounded in community, cultural continuity, and holistic support. Today, the Centre continues this legacy by offering a widerange of programs that respond to the evolving needs of Indigenous individuals and families, including Sixties Scoop Survivors and those impacted by intergenerational displacement.
Over the past three years, ongoing engagement with Survivors and their families has revealed a strong and consistent desire to reconnect with culture, language, and traditional arts. In response, the Brandon Friendship Centre has developed programming that prioritizes identity reclamation through culturally grounded teachings led by Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and Spiritual Leaders.
Photo credit: Brandon Friendship Centre – Program posters
Language as Identity
Language revitalization hasbecome a central pillar of this work. Weekly classes in Cree, Anishinaabe, Dakota, and Michif support Survivors in reconnecting with the stories, teachings, and worldviews embedded within Indigenous languages. These immersive sessions incorporate project-based learning and land-based instruction, allowing participants to build language skills while engaging directly with natural elements and traditional practices.
Photo credit: Brandon Friendship Centre – Anishaabemowin Bannock Making
To expand accessibility,the program is also introducing virtual learning opportunities, ensuring thatthose unable to attend in person can still participate in cultural teachingsand language revitalization efforts. Seasonal land-based instruction includinga three-day summer cultural language camp will further strengthen connectionsbetween participants, community, and the land.
Photo credit: Brandon Friendship Centre – Survivor family member first time sewing ribbon shirt
Cultural Arts as Pathways to Healing
Artistic expression plays acritical role in supporting emotional wellness and strengthening cultural identity. The program offers weekly classes in:
Beading (medallions, earrings, barrettes, moccasin vamps)
Sewing (skirts, shirts, regalia, medicine bags, drum bags)
Traditional crafts such as willow and birch bark basket-making
Drum and rattle making,umbilical and medicine pouches
These practices serve notonly as cultural teachings but also as therapeutic pathways that encouragehealthy coping strategies and self-expression.
Photo credit: Brandon Friendship Centre – Loom Beading
Participants also have access to ceremonies and seasonal gatherings including sweat lodges, solstice feasts, medicine harvesting, sharing circles, and Elder-led winter storytelling. Additional teachings such as tipi teachings, kinship systems, traditional parenting, and women’s teachings including water, moon, and medicine teachings offer culturally relevant frameworks for wellness.
A Trauma-Informed, Survivor-Centered Approach
To ensure programming remains responsive and culturally safe, the Brandon Friendship Centre prioritizes employing Sixties Scoop Survivors within program staffing. This approach enhances trauma-informed service delivery and deepens understanding of the lived experiences that participants may carry.
Photo credit: Brandon Friendship Centre – Applique Making Dress
Program leadership includes a Cultural Advisor who provides one-on-one counselling, facilitates sharing circles, and supports access to sacred ceremonies including sweat lodge, Sundance teachings, vision quest, pipe ceremony, and other traditional rites ofpassage.
Naming ceremonies and on-the-land sharing circles further support participants in reclaiming identity and restoring a sense of belonging that may have been disrupted through separation from family, language, and culture.
Photo credit: Brandon Friendship centre is participants attending a Dakota Pipe Ceremony honoring Indigenous Veterans on November 7th, 2026 with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew present.
Strengthening Identity Through Culture
By integrating language revitalization, land-based learning, and cultural arts, this initiative offers Survivors and their families an all-encompassing resource for healing. These interconnected teachings are designed to strengthen identity, self-worth, and holistic wellness ensuring that participants are supported not only during the program, but in their ongoing journeys toward reconnection and healing.
Through this work, the Brandon Friendship Centre continues to foster spaces where Survivors can rediscover who they are, grounded in culture, community, and the strength of their shared histories.
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For more information on the National Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation of Canada, please visit our website here: https://www.sixtiesscoophealingfoundation.ca/