SARAH WILLIAMS

STAFF WRITER

The inaugural Thrive Community Symposium was held Saturday, March 25^th at Prince Edward Collegiate Institute. The event, hosted by Thrive PEC, garnered close to 200 participants who engaged in a full day of speakers and panelists. From comedian Lanrick Bennett Jr. to Mellissa Hammell, the topics ranged from how to implement the “yes…and!” approach to community building, how to bring voice to forgotten tales and many more.

Karen Palmer, Economic Development Officer with the County, member of Thrive and one of the organizers of the symposium, spoke briefly with the Gazette about the reception from the public as well as upcoming events. She noted the Thrive Symposium has been in the works since last fall.

“Some of our volunteers came up with this idea last fall when we were thinking about how to get Thrive going,” Palmer explained. “Someone suggested a symposium as a way of introducing people to new ideas and we started reaching out to potential speakers. The agenda was really inspired by the economic report that came out in October. This listed nine broad topics that people in the County are concerned about or interested in. These include: climate change, affordability, and Indigenous relations.”

Heather Keam from the Tamarack Institute will be leading the next event that Palmer described as a “train the trainer” event, wherein some of the asset based maps developed during community brainstorming can be considered alongside community challenges to help come up with some creative solutions.

“The next phase is to think about some of the challenges we have by asking how we take those assets and challenges and come up with creative solutions,” Palmer explained.

As with many of the speakers, Melissa Hammell encouraged participants to consider their connection to place alongside those voices that may have disappeared from the landscape.

Hammell is a certified Integral Facilitator and community connector with over 20 years experience working with urban indigenous communities. In an effort honour her Anishinaabe (Kitigan Zibi) and European roots she brings voices from different cultures together in a welcoming and respectful way. As a Senior Associate with First Peoples Group, Melissa has designed and led major reconciliation initiatives, multi-stakeholder engagements, and community conversations with several Indigenous organizations, municipalities, government departments, businesses, and not-for-profits. She is passionate about cultural heritage, Indigenous design and “two-eyed seeing” approaches to healthcare and environmental problem-solving.

Hammell’s talk begged the questions, “Whose stories do we tell through local history? How can a community bring voice to forgotten tales, misunderstood narratives and history being made today?”

Much of Hammell’s talk was rooted in a sense of belonging.

“One of the tools we use is the medicine wheel. I could stand here talking for a week about all I’ve learned about it and still would have a lifetime of work to do. One of the teachings is that, when you enter, the first thing that needs to be established is ways of belonging,” stated Hammell.

She encouraged listeners to “not be afraid of reconciliation” and noted that it can be “really easy to shy away from”.

“These are systemic and symbolic changes where you will start to hear voices that have been missing for century and a half,” she added.

With her, Hammell brought what she called a basket of medicines. Included in this was a pair of moccasins made by her grandmother.

“In here are a pair of moccasins. They come from the Indigenous side of my family. Even though we weren’t brought up living on the reserve, my grandma and great grandma always made sure we knew where we were from,” said Hammell. “If you were lucky, my grandma would trace your feet in September and by Christmas, you’d get a pair of moccasins. They remind me that her voice was never lost, even though she wouldn’t have seen her voice anywhere in the public.”

Hammell reflected that there are certain aspects of culture, or a voice, that can’t be silenced.

“There are certain parts of that voice you can’t completely kill…things like our annual moccasins or visiting friends and family on the pow wow trail, you’re connected to something without knowing how,” she commented.

Speaking of the County, Hammell questioned what voices were missing and encouraged participants to reflect on where these voices might have gone.

“What is the story of the land? What are the voices that are missing from before and where did those people go?  We know indigenous people aren’t dead and gone-they didn’t go anywhere, but their voices were locked in boxes,” said Hammell.

Hammell noted an important practice for anybody, including herself, is to look inward and reflect on personal biases.

“I do a lot of reflecting on my own past and that first action we can take toward understanding Indigenous culture and heritage,” commented Hammell. “Look inward and question yourself on biases and do not take on any shame about that. We’re all products of systems we grow up in.”