Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Ladies of the Quesnel River Retreat Reunite


DAY 1 -Yellowknife
It was spring 2007 when 12 Indigenous women from across Canada came together on top of an old gold mountain near Likely, BC. It was Sharron Proulx- Turner, Joanne Arnott, Christi Belcourt, Jane Marston, Cathy Richardson, Cherie Dimaline, Harmony Rice, Renee Abrams, Bren Kolson,Kelly Benning, Maria Campbell and Kim Anderson for one week. Basically it was magic. Our mandate was to create and craft stories around motherhood- the time between conception and the first breath- in a ceremonial space. Every morning we woke up early, ate breakfast together and then cleaned. Then we would sit in the circle and meet in ceremony. The afternoons were for writing- writing and silence. Then we'd prepare food and eat together before meeting again afterwards in the circle, to read what we'd created and share.
It was beautiful.
It was beautiful because of the stories, beautiful because of the ceremony and even more beautiful for the friendships that were created.

Today we journeyed from Ontario, Alberta and BC to meet in Yellowknife. Today we started that journey back to each other and back to the work.