Honouring Our Spirits Gender-Based Violence Prevention
Honouring Our Spirits is designed to help communities create safe spaces and implement wise practices for addressing gender-based violence and inequities. Delivered through a Train-the-Trainer model, this two-day in-person training equips workers, facilitators, and community members with the tools, stories, and cultural frameworks needed to guide healing and prevention efforts. Participants receive additional materials and resources to support their own communities.
Seeking Community Participants
Are you interested in understanding more about gender-based inequity and gender-based violence?
Would you like to bring wise practices for safe and healing spaces into your community?
CAAN invites you to bring the Honouring Our Spirits training to your community. This two-day, in-person training offers an Indigenous cultural approach to building understanding, connection, and community-based solutions.
Contact: Andrea Coombs, Gender-Based Violence Equity Framework Coordinator [email protected]
Cultural Foundation
In the Honouring Our Spirits training, each section starts with an Indigenous teaching. At the beginning lies the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, which reminds us of balance, respect, and interconnection. The story of Skywoman’s fall from Sky World, and the coming together of gifts from above and below to create the Earth, teaches that every being, no matter how small, carries a gift essential to the whole. From this understanding, we are reminded that all people – women, men, Two-Spirit, gender-diverse, and children – are equally valued and interdependent.
This cultural foundation is complemented by the tree framework, symbolizing our continuous growth and learning. Like a tree, we are nourished by our roots, our ancestors, teachings, and community, and even when we stumble or fall away, we can always return to our roots and rejoin the learning journey.
Training Overview
Honouring Our Spirits is organized into six interconnected sections, each weaving together knowledge-sharing, cultural teachings, and interactive activities.
1. Building Connections
This section explores how we form and maintain relationships with one another. Participants reflect on how every interaction leaves an impression. Colonization sought to break these bonds; through this training, we work to restore and strengthen them, ensuring that the spaces we create together are safe and respectful for open, heartfelt dialogue.
2. History
Understanding how we arrived here begins with our creation stories and the formation of our communities. From traditional teachings to the impacts of colonization, this section helps participants explore historical roots of gender roles and inequities, while creating space to share personal and community histories.
3. Terminology
Words shape understanding. This section invites participants to explore key concepts such as equity, equality, inclusion, acceptance, and gender, tracing how these meanings have shifted from pre-contact times to today. Many Indigenous Nations did not define gender through rigid hierarchies; revisiting those original understandings helps us reclaim balance and mutual respect.
4. Gender-Based Violence
Participants examine the many forms of gender-based violence (GBV): physical, emotional, spiritual, and systemic. Using the rings of a tree as a guiding metaphor, communities identify existing supports and the areas where new resources or healing circles may be needed. The goal is to strengthen the protective layers surrounding individuals and families at the centre.
5. Restorative Justice
This section explores culturally grounded approaches to accountability and healing. Rather than relying solely on punitive systems, restorative justice focuses on what is needed for those who have caused harm to take responsibility, seek healing, and rejoin the community with understanding and change.
6. Staying Connected
The final section focuses on sustaining relationships built through this work. Participants leave with tools and networks to continue supporting each other and fostering environments rooted in respect, love, and shared responsibility.
Supporting Participants
Throughout the training, self-care and collective care are emphasized. Community members carry the weight of many stories, and this training helps them strengthen all aspects of their being – spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical – so they can continue their work with balance and wellness.
Seeking Community Participants
Are you interested in understanding more about gender-based inequity and gender-based violence?
Would you like to bring wise practices for safe and healing spaces into your community?
CAAN invites you to bring the Honouring Our Spirits training to your community. This two-day, in-person training offers an Indigenous cultural approach to building understanding, connection, and community-based solutions.
Contact: Andrea Coombs, Gender-Based Violence Equity Framework Coordinator [email protected]
