The Dreamcatcher In the centre is the heart, though which dreams and inspiration are received and filtered though the web, down through the sacred feathers and into manifested form.
A BEGINNING PEP Introduced to the First Nations
The Saskatoon Symposium on Restorative Justice this November 19 and 20 had a majority representation from the First Nations.
At a PEP introductory workshop, Superintendent for Schools for Lac La Ronge Indian Band was inspired to ask for and receive a copy of "Inside Peace".
A youth caseworker with Street Culture in Regina was very pleased with the PEP session and took home a copy of the movie.
The First Nations presence was strong, 50 to 75%, which definitely and delightfully affected the feel and the content of this symposium.
The MC was Simon Bird, a very funny First Nations man who among many other things also teaches Cree online apparently very effectively and with a lot of humor.
Annelies's Download
Attending the Saskatoon NRJ Symposium was really worthwhile. The 2 days there were jam packed!
Interactions with other attendees throughout our time there were great. First day we sat with several volunteers for the Restorative Justice Program in Kamloops. It was cool that we weren't the only volunteers who attended!
The keynote speaker, Waneek Horn-Miller, did an amazing job! What a story! A First Nation girl with an incredibly strong mother who was part of the Oka crisis as a teenager and then became a Canadian Olympian athlete in water polo!
A friend of mine, Jan Turner from Regina, attended the gala and award ceremony as the award recipient was a former student of hers. Marielle and I enjoyed a long visit with her on our last evening together and that was also amazing. I really didn't know about all the work she has done over her 32 years with the SK government but thanks to Marielle asking a few questions we were treated to quite the evening of sharing. She actually was the policy writer for Restorative Justice in the province and over the years has flown into tiny First Nations communities all over the province to learn about their needs in order to develop policy. She would typically fly in with a few men who worked for her, arrive in a community and head to the kitchen to help the women while waiting for all the men to arrive for the meeting. In this way she learned from the women what their needs were. They would open up to her, and no one assumed her to be the boss, but she was. She has been able to put a lot of good strong supports in place for women in need due to domestic violence and so on. She also said that the best part of her 32 years of work has been learning from the First Nations and that she feels she has only scratched the surface.
I am very grateful I took this opportunity to work with Marielle on presenting at the symposium! Working with her had been a pleasure! Being a delegate and presenter there seemed natural and I really felt I was among peers.
Having such good PEP information and materials to share in that environment of caring, hard working people was a great feeling. Being part of the presentation was an honor. To see and feel the participants watching, listening and responding was humbling and was another demonstration of the power of Prem's sharing.
Thank you all for being part of this. What a great unfolding, loving story we are each getting to be involved in!!
A Little Glimpse from Marielle Comeau
What an amazing time !!!
Very warm and open interactions with caring people who work hard to help and want to make changes in the Restorative Justice field. About 300 delegates with a high representation of First Nations people.
OUR PEP WORKHOP
The focus at our PEP workshop was strong. A really good feeling!
Annalies was the presenter. She did a wonderful job! She kept calm and cool despite technical glitches.
We designed our 90 min workshop into two part: A = Information on PEP, video “Peace on the Inside” (11 min) Part B = a sample of a PEP Workshop (PEP 3 #8 Theme Choice)
We had good feedback and questions.
The PEP brochure, with a pen, was on the chair when they came in and we distributed the Workbook page for the PEP sample part
5 people left at the end with a copy of the DVD Inside Peace
OUR PRESENCE IN THE LOBBY We had a table in the main lobby, with a PEP poster, PEP brochures, business cards, orange pens and of course, chocolates.