158 - Avis O'Brien on Creativity, Healing, and Reconciliation

TRIGGER WARNING: This podcast discusses the topic of suicide.

If you or a loved one are contemplating suicide please call or text 9-8-8. For the Kids Helpline call 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT. Indigenous Peoples call 1-855-242-3310.

N'alag̱a / Ḵ'áw kuuna (Avis O'Brien), a Haida/Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw artist and Land Based Cultural Empowerment Facilitator, was born in Alert Bay, British Columbia. She belongs to the Kawaas Sdaast.aas Eagle Clan from the Village of K'yuusda in Haida Gwaii and the Gigəlǧəm n̓əm̓ina sa Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ people of Cape Mudge, one of the 18 Tribes of the Kwakwaka'wakw.

Avis offers Community Land Based Healing Workshops that are rooted in Decolonization, Reconciliation, Indigenous Land Based Healing & Breath & Embodiment Practices.

Her work aims to highlight the intersectionality of Colonial genocide, Impacts of trauma, residential schools, and how we can utilize Ancestral forms of healing to regain a sense of balance and harmony in body, mind, and spirit.

Her work in Indigenous youth suicide prevention focuses on resisting the spirit of suicide within ourselves by utilizing land based culturally rooted healing practices. Drumming, singing, dancing, medicine harvesting, ceremony, weaving, breath & embodiment practices are utilized as self regulation tools, guiding folks down the path of neurdecolonization.

Her work within Non Indigenous communities has a focus on building Allyship and dismantling racist stereotypes against Indigenous folks.

Social Media: 

@nalagaconsulting 

@indigenoussuicideprevention