The insight of Elders and members of Brock’s Indigenous community will be shared during two upcoming virtual wellness-themed events.

Presented by the President’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights, Equity and Decolonization (PACHRED), and the Decolonization subcommittee, the online sessions, which are open to the Brock community, will focus on the concept of balance and land-based therapy.

On Thursday, Feb. 17 at noon, Brock’s Indigenous Educational Developer Mac Orlando will host a discussion on Indigenous perspectives on balance with Elders Ida Martin and Melba Thomas from Six Nations of the Grand River. A live stream of the discussion can be accessed at the time of the event on the Microsoft Teams streaming platform.

Orlando said he views balance as a foundational concept and not just a goal to be achieved.

“For many Indigenous nations and cultures, we believe ourselves to have four aspects of being: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual,” he said. “As a generalization, if one aspect is not nurtured enough, we become off-balance, which may lead to acting or thinking from a place without roots in all four aspects of being. Finding balance is an effort to live, act and think from a ‘wholistic’ [spelling intended] perspective to bring our whole selves to every moment.”

The second event, on Thursday, March 24 at noon, will see Brock’s Aboriginal Recruitment/Liaison Officer Sam Charal welcome Elder Aabiidaasmosede Peter Beaucage from Nipissing First Nation to discuss land-based therapy.

Charal said powerful lessons can be learned from interacting with the land.

“Everything — the knowledge and the resources — that we need to thrive as a species remains in the way Earth offers her food, water and air to all beings, equally,” he said. “When we learn to accept that all life is equal, we learn to walk in a good way with empathy for everyone, respect for everything and kinship to all life.”

A live stream of the land-based therapy discussion can also be accessed at the time of the event via the Microsoft Teams streaming platform.

All participants are welcome at the events, which will have moderated written question sections to ensure respect for those speaking.

Any questions about the events themselves can be sent to Brock’s Director of Aboriginal Student Services Cindy Biancaniello at cbiancaniello@brocku.ca, while questions about accessing the livestreams can be sent to Rox Chwaluk, Brock’s Co-ordinator of Off-Campus Student Engagement at rchwaluk@brocku.ca