To be relational, from an Indigenous perspective, is to understand that no one exists alone. Identity is shaped through kinship, community, land, language, ancestors, and responsibility. Relational practice recognizes that wellness is deeply connected to how we care for one another, how we honour relationships, and how we move through the world with respect, reciprocity, and accountability.
Relational approaches are rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Being relational recognizes that healing and growth happen in connection — not in isolation. This understanding guides our team’s work grounded in kinship, cultural humility, place-based learning, and community wellness. This approach asks us to slow down, listen deeply, and create spaces where people feel seen, valued, and safe.
Gathering Our Medicine reflects this understanding through a relational-based intercultural family and community restoration model rooted in kinship, culture, and Indigenous ways of knowing. Originally created in response to communities seeking culturally distinct programming, this model (founded by Denise Findlay), supports healing by strengthening relationships within families, communities, and organizations. It recognizes that people already carry teachings, stories, and cultural strengths that are medicine.
Being relational also means understanding that wellness extends beyond the individual. It includes the wellbeing of children, families, communities, and future generations. Indigenous relational practice emphasizes interconnectedness — between people, the land, culture, spirit, and collective responsibility. This approach creates opportunities for restoration, belonging, and healing relational ruptures caused by colonial systems and disconnection.
Denise’s programs such as Moving Together in the Ways of the People further embody this work through land-based learning, contemplative practice, and Indigenous-led approaches to reconciliation and decolonization. Participants are invited to learn through experience, reflection, ceremony, and relationship with the land and one another. This kind of learning is not transactional; it is transformative. It encourages people to move beyond observation and into meaningful engagement rooted in humility and respect.
Relational work also plays an important role in organizational wellness, leadership, and systems change.
Trauma-informed and culturally safe practices require more than policies or checklists. They require authentic relationship-building, ethical engagement, and a willingness to examine how colonial structures continue to shape experiences within organizations and communities. Relational practice supports sustainable cultural change by centering trust, accountability, and human connection.
At its core, being relational means understanding that how we show up matters. It means recognizing that every interaction carries the potential to build connection, restore dignity, and strengthen community.
Indigenous relational approaches remind us that healing, learning, and transformation are collective journeys — ones rooted in respect, reciprocity, and the wisdom carried through generations.