Launch of Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey draws on the power of story, art and song
Further We Rise Collective/Sacred Rock Society present three days of ceremony, teachings, storytelling, and art during Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival
An honourary grandmother Eileen (Albert) Spence and her son Roger Patrick Spence.
Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey is a three-year multi-community, multi-generational project that will bring together Indigenous families, tribes, and territories of the Fraser and Thompson River watersheds to honour the lives and lived experiences of grandmothers who travelled to Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Many lost connections with families and friends, and their grandchildren don’t know their stories. Family members are working to restore relationships between generations and communities.
The Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey Launch features three days of ceremony, teachings, storytelling, and art in Oppenheimer Park in the Downtown Eastside respecting Mother Earth. The launch is produced by Further We Rise Collective/Sacred Rock Society in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre /Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.
This cultural work takes place November 5 to 7. All events are free.
The project seeks to honour grandmothers who travelled to the Downtown Eastside; grandmas who’ve passed on; grandmas who are with us now; and grandmas’ life stories. Through arts and ceremony, the launch will honour grandmothers’ role of caring for us all: the land, water, wild salmon, people, plants, and animals that provide us with food.
The launch of Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey begins with the Nlaka’pamux wildfire fighters (IN-D-SPENCE-ABLE) carrying a travelling message chest from Vancouver’s sidewalks into Oppenheimer Park, to be welcomed by Stephen Lytton and Mary Point (Musqueam).
Victor Guerin (Musqueam), Suzette Amaya, and Autumn Walkem will share the Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey history and vision: from art and ceremonies to the journey of travelling message chests. The public can participate by writing messages to their ancestors, grandmothers, and family and placing them in the message chest to help guide the spirits and memories of their families back home, to be properly respected and laid to rest.
The launch schedule is as follows: November 5 from 10 am to 4 pm, Oppenheimer Park (1 pm, Opening Ceremony); November 6, 10 am to 4 pm at Oppenheimer Park (2 pm, Stories from our Grandmothers - healing journey presentations and speakers); and November 7, 10 am to 12 pm, Oppenheimer Park (Sending Off Ceremony).
Further We Rise Collective is supported by Sacred Rock Society, whose founding was inspired by the Nlaka’pamux community of Spence’s Bridge with the vision of connecting Indigenous arts, cultural heritage, and language with health, education, and the natural environment.
Further We Rise/Sacred Rock Society are inviting Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, grassroots organizations, businesses, and communities to participate and support the future journey of these honour chests for the next three years.
If you would like to help, contact sacredrock.ca.
More information about Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey Launch, see the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.
Honouring Our Grandmothers logo.