We will be CLOSED Wednesday Sept 30th in observance of the National Day of Truth & Reconciliation. We will be back to regular programming Thursday October 1st.
The H&H team will taking the day to reflect upon the ongoing colonization of the unceded Indigenous territories we reside upon. If you are a settler residing on Lekwengen Territories, please take some time out of your day to attend the South Island Pow Wow, hosted by Songhees Nation.
We encourage all of you to take the opportunity to learn more about the land we occupy, the original peoples who were stewards of this land and their respective histories. And this is a good opportunity to review the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action.
If it is within your means, we encourage you to support one of these organizations, in the spirit of reconciliation:
Support Victoria Orange Shirt Day Phyllis Webstad and Victoria Orange Shirt Day organizers Eddy Charlie and Kristin Spray are passionate about sharing their knowledge of Residential Schools and what that means for them today.
National Centre for Truth & Reconciliation The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is the archival repository for all of the material collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, purposed to compile the complete history and legacy of Canada’s residential school system.
Indian Residential School Survivors Society The Indian Residential School Survivors Society began in 1994 as a working committee of the First Nations Summit. We were known as the Residential School Project, housed out of and as a part of the BC First Nations Summit. Our work was primarily to assist Survivors with the litigation process pertaining to Residential School abuses. In more recent years our work has expanded to include assisting the descendants of Survivors and implementing Community education measures (Indigenous & Non-Indigenous).
XaXw Tenew Sacred Land Society Xaxe is non-profit organization is an Indigenous-led charitable society located on so-called Southern Vancouver Island. The people leading this work are Saltwater Salish people Indigenous to this region. We are focusing on the Rematriate Stewardship Project, which is an initiative for Land Back to house Saltwater Salish women to protect our right to learn our language, how to care for our land, heal through culture and being on the land, and to teach younger generations and our community these skills.
Victoria Native Friendship Centre The Victoria Native Friendship Centre (VNFC) has been in existence for over 45 years. VNFC provides services to an estimated 20,000 Indigenous people living off reserve in the greater Victoria area; as well as the 5,000 residents from the First Nations communities in the southern Vancouver Island region, in addition to a sizeable Indigenous population from across Canada. VNFC takes great pride in their exceptional approach to First Nation social issues.
Unist’ot’en Camp The Unist’ot’en Camp is an indigenous re-occupation of Wet’suwet’en land in northern “BC, Canada”. Year-round volunteer support is needed on the frontlines and beyond.
For folks who are hoping to get a flu vaccine for this particularly risky cold/flu season, they are now available and are FREE OF CHARGE down the street at STS Pharmacy at 820 Cormorant St. Just contact the pharmacist administering them, Tony Kim @ By phone: 236-562-8669 By email : info.higherhealth@gmail.com Or through his website, www.higherhealthinfo.ca
A few shots of our lean mean acupunking team doing our thing at at the inaugural North Park Neighbourhood Festival, Car Free YYJ & the 23rd Annual FernFest!
At 6:30am, Monday July 1st, I thought I was just going “pop by” the new space to grab my laptop only to open the door and stand there paralyzed because I was unable to process for at least 5 minutes that someone smashed in our windows: Well,This is utterly devastating. Someone decided to throw two…
We will be CLOSED Monday October 14th in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day, also known as Canadian Thanksgiving. Please give thanks to the people and the land on which we live, work and play. We hope you enjoy a nourishing meal with your loved ones. Heart & Hands would like to acknowledge that we make…
Even more unfortunately, the relationship between loneliness and ill health is well established…Read more about this article in the Vancouver Sun. The collective energy of each individual helped to fill the space with a palpable calmness, something that many of us don’t engage in often enough. It was these experiences that motivated me to utilize…