Oct 3rd, 2024

Walk the Talk: Overbrook Tenant Shares Creative Lessons with OCH Staff 

Raven Brightmoon helped a group of OCH staff find their balance and learn a little more about Indigenous culture on September 25.   

Raven is from the Abenaki Wolf Clan. She didn’t know the true nature of her roots until her grandmother told her in 2002. Her grandmother was kidnapped by a white family whose daughter died when she was four.   

They stole her grandmother’s identity and her family’s as well. Raven said she had “started walking the red path” in 1994 because she knew she had Indigenous roots deep down.   

A Day of Art and Learning 

The workshop with OCH staff included a smudging ceremony and the creation of a medicine wheel mural – using paints and objects found in nature.   

The mural included the four parts of the circle – the north white winter buffalo, the west, black fall bear, the south, the red coyote for the south and the east spring eagle for the west. The centrepiece is the turtle, a part of the origin story.  The mural will be installed at the Chapel office once renovations are completed.  

“I felt a great, relaxing energy,” said Raven. “People were having fun and took their paintbrush and went with it.”  

Raven, who now lives in Overbrook, has lived in OCH communities since 1999. No matter where she lives, she jumps right into her community, connecting with other residents. She said during the power outage in Overbrook, which lasted 10 days during the Derecho Storm, she cooked all the food in her freezer and delivered meals to her neighbours.   

While in the Caldwell community, she co-founded the Rainbow Weavers Women’s group at the Carlington Community Centre for 20 years. She is the co-facilitator of the Creative Path – which creates a space for artists and provides them with free materials to use their talent.   

“An artist who cannot create will go crazy,” said Raven. “It’s important to have access to the creative outlet.”  

Why host the workshop?  

As part of our goal to better reflect our diverse communities, OCH has created a diversity, equity and inclusion plan to effect meaningful change. The workshop was part of the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour Employee Resource Groups efforts to acknowledge National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.  

Raven said helping and respecting each other is important to the community. She added she’s hoping to continue the conversation around Indigenous issues.