The May 2021 Contemplative Practice Webinar

Presented by Gary Joseph and Trudy Sable
Friday, May 21st, 3 – 4:30 pm ET/ 12 – 1:30 pm PT

Registration has now closed

Free for ACMHE members (join here) / US$25 for non-members / $25 access grants available

Live via Zoom
Connection info will be shared once registered. Registration closes an hour before the event.

In this webinar participants will experience an Indigenous ceremony from the Blackfoot and northern Cree traditions. We will participate in creating an Indigenous ceremonial context for connecting our individual narratives to the natural elements in our environment—earth,water, air, and fire, as well as to our different stages of life. Gary Joseph will lead us through the sweat lodge ceremony, allowing participants to experience the four directions and the stages we journey through in our lives. In so doing, we will experience our inter-relatedness and common humanity, while respecting the forces, including our ancestors, that brought us together.

Discussion will explore: What in this kind of activity is universal and reaches across cultures? What enables a sense of community despite differences? How could ceremony be created from the narratives of participants as they share experiences of the natural world?

Webinar Takeaways: 

1. Appreciation of Indigenous ceremony as contemplative practice.
2. Ceremony as a holistic approach to contemplative education
3. Experience of connectedness with others, our natural world, and increased compassion.
4. A relational model for teaching based on Indigenous practices.

Gary Joseph is Nehiyaw or Plains Cree, originally from the Big River Cree Nation in central Saskatchewan, Turtle Island. He has lived in Shubenacadie First Nation, Nova Scotia since 1994 and is the Elder-In-Residence for the Nova Scotia Community College, Akerley Campus. As an Elder-in-Residence, he provides guidance, support, and cross-cultural education for students and people of all cultures. He has guest lectured extensively on Indigenous issues and the healing role of ceremony within the Academy.

Trudy Sable, PhD has worked with and within Indigenous communities for over thirty years, liaising between government, universities, and the private sector on numerous educational and research projects. She spent sixteen years as the Director of Aboriginal and Northern Research at Saint Mary’s University, and now is the Community Engaged Research Facilitator, Office of the V.P.A.R. and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology teaching courses on Indigenous history in Canada and issues of decolonization.