What is land-based healing?
Land-based describes a First Nations way of life rooted in traditional knowledge, where everything is connected and related to the land and water. It is a key concept for understanding First Nations views on mental wellness, which cannot be separated from emotional, physical, and spiritual health or the land itself.
Being on the land itself heals. This traditional knowledge supports the many health and healing benefits of spending time in the outdoors, including improved cognition, memory, and mood.
Land-based activities can include berry picking, hunting or snaring, trapping, fishing, picking traditional medicines, tanning hides, and many others.
What is the SCO Land-Based Healing Fund?
SCO’s Land-Based Healing Fund is available to SCO-member Anishinaabe and Dakota communities and community organizations (up to $25,000), and treament centres and healing lodges (up to $50,000), that want to offer or augment land-based healing programs for their members struggling with substance use.
Relearn why we love the land
Revitalize our family and community connections
Reclaim our health and well-being
Land-based programs re-establish our spiritual connection with the land through recognition that all of Creation, the animals, plants, and rocks, are all related and interconnected. The land is both a teacher and healer that can guide us towards a life of wellness. Healing takes place when we strengthen our attachments to the land and reconnect with our culture.
SCO’s Land-Based Healing Fund acknowledges that First Nation leaders, Healers, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers are the experts on our traditional territories and that land-based healing programs build community wellness and must be locally led.
Apply for funding from the Land-Based Healing Fund:
You can access our application form by clicking here.
For more information, contact us by:
Phone: 204-946-1869
Toll free: 1-866-876-9701
Email: harmreduction@scoinc.mb.ca
