{"id":36588,"date":"2025-07-18T14:51:21","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36588"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:53:11","slug":"cmha-six-nations-community-use-town-park-as-backdrop-to-healing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/cmha-six-nations-community-use-town-park-as-backdrop-to-healing\/","title":{"rendered":"CMHA, Six Nations Community use Town Park as backdrop to healing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Canadian Mental Health Association of York Region and South Simcoe recently joined forces with members of the Six Nations community to foster a space for healing \u2013 using Aurora Town Park as a backdrop to a full day of learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rise Above the Rest was an experiential workshop led by facilitators of the Six Nations Community for CMHA-YRSS staff and clients with a focus on \u201cempowering participants with a deeper understanding of Indigenous cultures, traditions, and worldviews \u2013 fostering connection, awareness, and pride across the Community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workshop was the brainchild of Sarah Caldeira, Program Lead for the CMHA-YRSS\u2019 Recovery College, or, formally, the College of Health and Wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intent, she says, was to recognize the importance of \u201cengaging meaningfully with Indigenous communities,\u201d particularly with June being National Indigenous History Month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought it was the perfect time to create that space for learning and reflection, and the Recovery College program is really about empowering people to take charge of their recovery, wellness and wellbeing,\u201d she says. \u201cOffering the Indigenous workshop gave people a chance to learn about Indigenous culture and history in a really respectful and culturally-aware way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI connected with facilitators from Rise Above the Rest. They brought a more deep and cultural understanding to the session, and I thought it was really important if it was an Indigenous Workshop that it came from Indigenous people, created that authenticity from lived experience and cultural knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the day unfolded, participants were able to take part in a number of Indigenous games, such as lacrosse, which organizers say \u201cgot people up and about laughing and enjoying themselves,\u201d as well as in drum demonstrations, and to witness traditional dances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the major highlights is always around the music part of things,\u201d says Caldeira of both this initiative and other programs which have focused on Indigenous drumming on CMHA camping trips. \u201cWhen it comes to the benefits, it really helps create a more culturally-aware organization. I think it\u2019s really important when it comes to Indigenous communities and awareness that we strengthen those partnerships and continue to do so. It\u2019s also important because we have a very diverse clientele and I think it\u2019s really important to make sure we reflect the diversity of the community that we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CMHA-YRSS\u2019 Jill Yeo echoes these sentiments and notes there is a therapeutic element to Indigenous teachings as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019ve had our camping trips with the drumming, it hasn\u2019t just been a case of enjoyment; we own many, many different drums and we have drumming sessions, and the clients, I feel, get so much out of the music in itself \u2013 just being exposed to music, listening to music, sharing music, and it does have that therapeutic effect on them,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s also that spiritual effect with the drums. There\u2019s something about drums that really bring out a lot of emotion with people and we have seen that for several years at any of our events where we\u2019ve had that with our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CMHA-YRSS\u2019 Indigenous Affinity Group, adds Yeo, is always working on community initiatives and says they\u2019re always looking for volunteers \u2013 particularly from the Indigenous community to help them further develop such initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis workshop Sarah did was the first time we\u2019ve had this,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s something that hopefully next June we\u2019ll be able to elaborate on and add more and get more clients and staff involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Canadian Mental Health Association of York Region and South Simcoe recently joined forces with members of the Six Nations community to foster a space for healing \u2013 using Aurora Town Park as a backdrop to a full day of learning. Rise Above the Rest was an experiential workshop led by facilitators of the Six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36589,"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-36588","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\/2025\/07\/2025-07-17-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9w8","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 06:51:59","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\/36588","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=36588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36590,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36588\/revisions\/36590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}