In February, cluster members and friends of the cluster gathered together in the beautiful Musqueam Cultural Centre for a two-day wellness retreat, with the goals of taking intentional care of our spirits and deepening our relationships with one another.
After starting our retreat off in a good way with a territorial welcoming from Musqueam Councilor Alec Guerin, we spent the first morning in circle and the afternoon with Elder Daune, who taught a Devil’s Club medicinal salve workshop.
Elder Duane shared stories of his and his daughter’s harvesting process and taught us about the physical and spiritual healing properties of Devil’s Club. We made the salve together, and each participant got to take home their own tin!
(Filmed and edited by Cynthia Lung)
Our second day consisted of only our cluster members for a day of visioning, peer mentorship, and planning for the future of the cluster. Before diving in, Councilor Alec joined us again and gave an enlightening tour of the Musqueam Nation’s travelling exhibition, “c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city”.
The rest of the morning was spent in a facilitated visioning circle to generate collective wisdom that will help to define and inform the cluster’s work moving forward. In this circle, we used prompts to generate discussion about the values we bring to research in partnership with Indigenous communities, the challenges we face in our roles, and the ideas we have for the future of this work.
In the afternoon, we gave cluster members the opportunity to share the projects they have been working on in their roles to get feedback from their peers and the Elders.
Photo and video credits: Cynthia Lung