Journey Women - Aboriginal Women's Healing Experiences

Photo taken by Jenna Maclellan

Aboriginal Women from Minwaashin Lodge - Aboriginal Women’s Support Centre shared their stories of their healing journey in an art exhibit for Women Abuse Awareness Month that ran at the Orange Gallery in Ottawa, Canada from November 10th to the 14th 2010. “Journey Women” was an art exhibit of ‘body-map’ images created by 8 women in a 3-day arts-based workshop on the healing experiences of Aboriginal Women. The project was a part of a collaborative research between Minwaashin Lodge and Concordia University in Montreal. The workshops were facilitated by art therapist Lucy Lu and  Felice Yuen, Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Human Sciences with Concordia University in MontrealThe goal of the project was to gain an understanding of the conditions that contribute or challenge Aboriginal women in their process of healing from violence or the impacts of violence.

The art-based workshop invited the eight aboriginal women to map out their healing journey through the body-map process. This body-mapping process was based on Jane Solomon’s work “Living with X” – a Body Mapping Journey in the time of HIV and AIDS. The process was adapted for the exploration of the healing experiences of Aboriginal Women, and the model of mapping out the life journey was adapted from a linear viewpoint to a circular life-cycle to fit the Aboriginal life perspective. The workshop incorporated traditional Aboriginal ceremony of prayer, smudging, drumming and singing, which were led by the women; as well as movement and grounding activities, poetry and art creation.

In pairs, women helped trace their body outlines to how they see themselves today. Then they created an outline of another image that would represent their support network – people, agencies, events, spiritual supports and anything that has given them strength. They used colours and symbols to depict how they have felt supported by their support network. They filled in their own outlines with the colours and textures that depicted their pain as well as their healing. The outline of themselves and their support were placed in communication with each other and showed how each woman views their relationship to their support networks. This process supported aboriginal women to map out their journey towards healing and identifying with other positive and affirming aspects of themselves and their culture, besides pain, hurt, abuse, violence, and cultural assimilation.

The women were then asked to create symbols depicting different aspects of their life journey. Using the traditional native life-cycle based on the medicine wheel, starting from the right hand corner and moving clockwise, women mapped out their origins, the challenges they have overcome in their life, where they are now and where they see themselves going. They also marked their points of power on their body, with a personal symbol to mark themselves. Women were encouraged to choose how to depict their self portraits, add words or a personal slogan that gives meaning to them and their journey.

Throughout the process, women were encouraged to share to the level they felt comfortable and they were always reminded that they could share their story anonymously in order protect their confidentiality. On the following pages, you will get a chance to see their body maps and some women have chosen to share how their story and what their image represents.

The art exhibit marks the celebration of a journey of courageous women mapping out their stories through their body-maps in order to raise awareness around the issue of violence against women, and to celebrate the resilience and strength of women on their healing journey. This website is a continuation of sharing these stories and raising awareness.

Some of the women have also gone on to lead their own creative expression workshop with other women, to share what they have learned in the body-mapping process and will also go on to present their work at the Women’s Worlds Conference in July 2011 in Ottawa, where the Journey Women exhibit will be displayed.

Throughout the website you will find the stories of the women who participated in the workshop through their images and written work.  May their stories inspire you and offer you insight on the healing journey.

Minwaashin Lodge -Aboriginal Women's Support Centre www.minlodge.com

For more information about the project you can also contact:

Felice Yuen 

Researcher and Assistant Professor 

of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University

Montreal, Quebec, Canada  

email: fyuen@alcor.concordia.ca

Lucy Lu  

Art Therapist (from 2009-2016) 

Minwaashin Lodge Aboriginal Women's Support Centre

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 

She can now be reached at: 

email: lucyluAT@gmail.com