Ways to Wellness Project
❄️ Mnidoo Ghiizis - ( Spirit Moon) - January ❄️
Mno'gizhigad / Good Day Everyone 
Today is the first day of 2023, and a lot has happened in the last couple of years. I graduated from a Master's program spring 2020, and then Allie and I delivered in-person arts programming for local high-school students throughout the pandemic with Creative ACE until 2022. It has also been almost close to (2) years now for me working full time as a Volunteer Coordinator for a regional Indigenous Child and Family Service organization.
The photo here of Allie and I was at our first and only open mic, March 5th 2020, a month into Creative ACE and days before we would go into the first lock down.
This past summer we successfully secured a second grant through Laidlaw Foundation for a new two-year endeavour:
Ways to Wellness Project
My role in helping facilitate live collaborative graphic design sessions will create flashcards that will eventually be formatted into an Anishinaabemowin Language Deck (ALD) with physical copies for us distribute regionally and a free version that will be available on my website www.earthandskystudio.ca as an Open Education Resource.
It has been a truly inspiring experience to become a part of a such a wonderful network of people and organizations who all work collectively to create positive systemic change - people acting as mechanisms within systems that actively improve sectors in which they work. I mean the social workers, the naturalists, the historians / archivists, the filmmakers, the theorists and scholars, the innovators bringing Green Technology programs to their communitues, the Jordans Principle navigators, the Aunties making food and sacred spaces for their loved ones, all of the other Coordinators and Volunteers helping get people where they need to go - everyone making the world a better place through their individual actions that will slowly result in creating a little more collective peace each day. Those actions - the ones in accordance with the Seven Sacred Teachings - and every step taken towards Mno'bimaadizowin (the Good Life) will also ripple intergenerationally and it is an honour to be able to participate in networks of people - all with such unique aspirations and goals -
working together to better the world around them. Creating that sacredness. Being the change.
working together to better the world around them. Creating that sacredness. Being the change.
Creating opportunities for youth engagement in context of Anishinaabe Language will assist students understand their surroundings better regardless of heritage - many mixed culture youth grow up not knowing either of their histories, and being deeply conflicted about their identities trying to make sense of where they fit in to Postcolonial history. Many placenames are Anishinaabe the more North you go, and though there are definitely dialectical differences, Anishinaabemowin has broad geographic catchment and some overlap both culturally and linguistically between communities across a pretty vast region.
Our very first ALD session with students will be coming up in January 2023, and we will subsequently have a series of Anishinaabe Language facilitators collaborate with students on this flashcard set over the next two years. If you know someone locally who might be interested in being a facilitator please let us know and we will reach out 
We will be prioritizing distribution of physical copies of the ALD for local organizations but we will also be providing copies to regional organizations that may benefit - if you know of an organization that would benefit from a physical copy, please do not hesitate to reach out and recommend we connect.
Allie is also coordinating several other wellness-based initiatives with students that will also be shared on our social media pages, and we are so excited to start officially sharing content for Ways to Wellness Project.
We can be reached by email for questions or inquiries at
waystowellnessproject@outlook.com
FaceBook - Ways to Wellness Project
Instagram - @waystowellnessproject
Chi'miigwech for the love and support in our journeys, which have been made possible the last few years by the Near North Mobile Media Lab, Laidlaw Foundation and the Laurentian Learning Centre, as well as the countless local community members that have and will collaborate on sessions with students.
All the best,
Chelsea
All the best,
Chelsea