Love, Light & Healing

in
Downtown Eastside Vancouver
National Aboriginal Solidarity Day 2007

Spirits Rising Memorial Society is honoured to announce the inaugural Love, Light and Healing Ceremony, which will be held at:

10:00 AM

National Aboriginal Solidarity Day

June 21st, 2007

Main & Hastings Streets

Downtown Eastside Vancouver.


Skiljaday Merle Williams, a Traditional Haida Healer, Teacher and Cranial-sacro Therapist who lives on Tsawwassen First Nation, was inspired to initiate the Love, Light and Healing Ceremony, in which Traditional Aboriginal Healers and Elders will join together to help to bring Love, Light and Healing to the area on the summer solstice. ‘Light Workers’ from all cultures, races, religions and creeds are welcome to participate in the spirit of unity.

The Love Light and Healing Ceremony is one of many innovative and empowering educational initiatives of the Society, which includes The Missing Women’s Memorial Totem Project, a sixteen-week educational course designed to empower women and youth from the Downtown Eastside through Traditional Aboriginal and Contemporary Education, with a strong focus on strengthening the inner core. Components of the curriculum include innovative classes ranging from Life Skills to Traditional Aboriginal Culture, History and Arts - carving, cedar weaving, beadwork and jewelry-making. Students of The Project will witness, learn and assist the Carvers, Siya7pl’tn Jordan Seward (Haida & Squamish) and Morgan Green (Tsimshian) on the Totem, which will be raised in September 2007 at Wendy Poole Park in East Vancouver.

Spirits Rising Memorial Society was created to act as a catalyst for positive change, offering innovative educational and empowering initiatives that will have a real effect on the lives of Aboriginal Women, Youth, Families, and all people in our world.

Spirits Rising Memorial Society is kindly supported by Canadian Heritage (Aboriginal Women’s Program), Margaret Mitchell Fund for Women, BC Gaming Commission and the Aboriginal Division of BC Health.

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For further information, interviews, images, etc., contact:

Michelle Morning Star Doherty
President
Spirits Rising Memorial Society
2019 Dundas Street (corner Wall Street)
Vancouver BC V5L 1J5
t: 604 254 1139 / c: 604 626 2559
w: www.spiritsrisingsociety.com
e: turtleisland@telus.net

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