The Healing Power of the Co-creative Circle

 

During the first lock downs of COVID, our tiny village on the shores of Georgian Bay filled with city dwellers seeking respite.  Their respite became our “invasion” and so we sought the solace of a nearby County forest out in the country. This forest was planted one hundred years ago to replace the trees that were all cut down by the early settlers to the region in the late 1800’s, trees that were planted to stop the soil from blowing away.  The forest became our welcoming refuge, our delight, our community and we forged relationships there.

In the winter of the second year of COVID, the loggers came and cut down dying Ash, mature Poplars and Maples.  They hauled out the logs they could sell and left behind huge piles of broken branches and tree stumps.  Our hearts broke looking at the mess that was left behind.  But, we had a strong relationship with the forest and couldn’t abandon it.  It was painful.  Then the downed branches began to whisper to me and form patterns in my imagination that led to the weaving of a big basket, there on the land, using the Ash sticks.  Next came a carving of a face in a left-behind Poplar log.  My partner and I co-created with the forest and our spirits came alive.

During the next month, the unmarked graves of 215 children were located on the grounds of a now closed Indian Residential School in Kamloops, BC.  This touched hearts that until now had remained closed, opened eyes that hadn’t yet seen and triggered ancestral traumas for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. More pain.  We made a tribute to the children in the forest and people added prayer ties, special objects and Indigenous and non-Indigenous people held ceremony there together.  It became a spot for discussion, for honouring, for storytelling, for healing.

During the next month, the LDD moth caterpillars ate the remaining canopy and it felt apocalyptic.  The remaining trees were now bare.  My partner made brightly painted mythical, magical birds from pieces of wood found in the forest and mounted them on the tree stumps adding funny names.  People shared the pictures on social media and families came to see the art work that was “popping” up in the forest.  They felt comforted by the forest and the artwork.

The "Lesser Tidbit", one of the magical, mythical birds created from found wood and paint

During the third summer of COVID, we spent our time creating a circular community garden with an Indigenous advisor to bring the community in our village together.  During one of our events there, a neighbour who is a former township councillor asked us to take part in a National Healing Forest initiative to provide spaces for Truth and Reconciliation work to be done all across Canada.  And so, we began the journey with a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to create a space at the County level for this work.  We decided to suggest the forest we had already been working in even though we never had permission to create the art there. It felt scary to share this with the people that we had judged as “destructive.”  It turned out that the director of the forest was fine with it once we took him on a walk there with the other people in the working group. He said that it was clearly already a healing forest. Our fears of the County destroying the art were needless it seemed.  And now we continue to work with the group to create a learning circle, better access to the river for Elders and improved parking.  A whole new vision is being co-created for the possibilities of activities and ceremonies that could take place in this healing space.  More relationships are being forged. 

National Healing Forest logo (https://www.nationalhealingforests.com/)

In fact, my partner went to the forest on the day that the crew were creating a new parking space.  Members of the crew asked him to show them the art work and explain it.  And so, he did.  He said that they stood in a circle, listened carefully to what he had to say and asked a few questions.  This seemed like a kind of a miracle to me.  The circle had opened wide enough to include the people that we had seen as “the bad guys.”  And here they were, using their “tools of destruction” to create the parking space requested by the Native Women’s Association as we work together.

The new parking area for the Healing Forest

I never could have imagined all the beauty that could be co-created at the beginning of all of this time of disruption.  I have learned though, that when things fall apart, to pick up the pieces that I want to keep and make something new, something beautiful, something form the heart.  I have learned about the magic of co-creativity and the power of the circle, the power of community.  I could have recounted all the losses as only negative.  But, that wouldn’t be telling the truth.  The truth I have come to learn is that within a co-creative community circle, healing is possible.