No More Silence has partnered with the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto on an exciting Disability Justice project. Our hope is to engage with Indigenous community members who experience challenges and barriers when attempting to access cultural and ceremonial spaces in order to develop guidelines to increase the accessibility of these spaces.
In the current phase of the project we are seeking Indigenous participants with a variety of accessibility needs. We will host a Zoom meeting to discuss their experiences and share ideas on how Indigenous community spaces can address ableism and improve access to culture and ceremony. We also want to talk about Indigenous concepts of ability and impairment in relation to disability justice. We are looking for participants with lived experience of access needs and/or who have experienced barriers related to physical, mobility, sensory (sight and hearing), intellectual, developmental, mental health, or trauma.
We will schedule three 1 and ½ hour meetings taking place on a Saturday (March 20 or 27). An honorarium will be provided. We are hoping for 8 – 10 participants per meeting.
In order to register for these meetings, please contact nomoresilenceorg@gmail.com or Rebecca Wood at 416-599-2458 extension 291.
The March 20th meeting will include ASL interpretation. Please let us know about any accommodation you may need to participate when you register. Please note that the Zoom meeting can be joined over the phone and there will be a limited number of one-on-one sessions available.
In a later phase of the project we will be building an accessible sweat lodge. The lodge will be run by Elder, Wanda Whitebird, who has been using a motorized wheelchair as a result of a spinal cord injury in January 2019.
