{"id":29752,"date":"2021-08-04T21:35:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T01:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29752"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:35:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T17:35:16","slug":"indigenous-storyteller-brings-culture-and-seeds-of-hope-to-town-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/indigenous-storyteller-brings-culture-and-seeds-of-hope-to-town-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous storyteller brings culture and \u201cseeds of hope\u201d to Town Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kim Wheatley has always been struck by the beauty of Town Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historic green space was once an everyday destination for the former Aurora resident, but last month it was the scene of mourning and memory as she led the community in a show of solidarity following the discovery of the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves on the grounds of a former Kamloops residential school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two months, that number has tragically only swelled, and on August 14, Ms. Wheatley, a Traditional Anishinaabe Grandmother and member of the Turtle Clan, carrying the Sprit Name \u201cHead or Leader of the Fireflower\u201d will return to Town Park with traditional stories and music she hopes will provide \u201cseeds of hope\u201d and change for the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 10.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m., in conjunction with the Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market, Ms. Wheatley will invite members of the public to sit down with her as she shares her culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople come out to events in Aurora in large numbers and they bring their whole families, whole groups, and I was really struck by that whole experience of the whole community and I wanted to be able to insert authentic Indigenous voice into some of the work that was being undertaken,\u201d she says of programs hosted by the Town, the Aurora Museum and Archives, and other organizations. \u201cPublic presentation is something that I have done for three decades and it is a way to truly connect our hearts on the road to reconciliation at this time, directly. If we can touch the hearts of just one person in the work that we do, that seed we have planted can ripple out far beyond any of the realms that we would be able to access personally and individually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cheart of Aurora\u201d is something Ms. Wheatley says really resonates with her and is something she wants to \u201csupport in its journey of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her presentations, Ms. Wheatley says she tries to offer something that is multi-generational, often stories and song, that can be \u201cinterspersed with nuggets of information that might nudge you into thinking or doing, or maybe having discussions in your circle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to plant the best seeds possible and leave it to you to grow your own garden,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first lesson one learns in life, she says, is that of relationship \u2013 and forging these relationships and connections is essential moving forward, and also in repairing relationships that have been broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is where I am going to start; relationship-building can be done in how you perceive a nation of people,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t just get to be Grandmother Kim, I get to be Kim, the Anishinaabe Grandmother who represents an entire nation. When you think about me, what you experience from me, paints a wide brush across the nations at large, so I want to do my best. I want you to feel better than when you came. I want to inspire you. I want to address some of the questions you might have. I want to interact meaningfully and I want to speak from my heart to your heart \u2013 and that is beautiful relationship-building. With that, you\u2019re not compartmentalizing to one area of speaking, you can speak about everything broadly if you build it on relationship first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her, music, particularly singing and drumming, is a universal language that gives a person a chance to \u201cdecompress, relax, slow down, get comfortable, and open up your listening spaces and heart.\u201d Her songs are \u201cmedicine that help heal the spirit\u201d and restore balance not only in spirit but also body and mind. From there, come the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just feel the audience,\u201d she says. \u201cWho is there? Are there a lot of children? Should I tell more comical stories? Should I tell one with very obvious morals? I just pick and choose, but my stories are always about the natural world because those are our first teachers, and that is where lessons can come from whether you are in school or not. I want [participants] to bring their hearts so they can be present in the sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love for people to remember that we\u2019re still here and our resilience has allowed that to be, that we\u2019re going to continue pushing forward, nudging Canadians into acknowledging our sovereign status and our immense contributions to this country and our immense sacrifices. I want them to take that away and make it their dinner table conversation, to make that actionable items moving forward, to make that a priority in how they make choices in every day life as a result of. Those are the seeds I hope to plant in the hearts of those who attend. I know the people who attend come with their hearts and I experienced that firsthand. I have great hope and I am also honouring a great commitment to the Town of Aurora and its citizens in the best way that I can in this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery child matters and we can\u2019t let this become a fatigue news item. We need to do our best to help protect the rights of children in this country, all children, but specifically Indigenous children and women. We\u2019re the most vulnerable in this country and we are the ones still currently experiencing the most harm. Do your best to learn about it and offer meaningful support where possible whether with dollars, or actions, or petitions and be in your own community spreading the word doing something collectively that is really powerful and change-making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kim Wheatley has always been struck by the beauty of Town Park. The historic green space was once an everyday destination for the former Aurora resident, but last month it was the scene of mourning and memory as she led the community in a show of solidarity following the discovery of the remains of 215 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/2021-08-05-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7JS","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 15:05:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}