LIFE as Medicine: Healing Through Art, Land, and Story
Ontario Akwesasne, Febraury 20, 2026
In partnership with the Old School CommunityGathering Place (OSCGP) and community partners in Mi’kma’ki, LIFE as Medicine: Circle of Indigenous Healing Arts offers monthly gatherings rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems, expressive arts, land-based teachings, and ceremonial practice.
This initiative emerged from the understanding that healing isnot one-size-fits-all: it is cultural, relational, and generational. Guided bythe leadership of four Sixties Scoop Survivors from the Atlantic Region, the program prioritizes First Voice perspectives, ensuring the work is Survivor-informed, culturally safe, and grounded incommunity-defined needs.
Participants were invited into spaces where creativity, ceremony, and cultural expression become medicine. Gatherings include activities such as:
Drum making and beading
Seal skin and ribbon art creation
Breathwork, sound healing, and storytelling
Land-based teachings and cultural reconnection
All are offered within environments that honour identity, cultural resurgence, and embodied healing.
In addition to creative expression, LIFE as Medicine provides access to Indigenous and indigenized healing supports, including individual and group therapy, strengthening emotional and intergenerational wellness.
This work is made possible because of the Foundation’scommitment to support healing that is defined by Survivors, led by communities, and sustained through culturally rooted practice. By empowering grassroots leadership and centring Indigenous healing arts, LIFE as Medicine exemplifies what meaningful, survivor-centred healing looks like in practice. Together, through expressive healing arts and community-led care, LIFE as Medicine honours the pastand reclaims the future.
.png)