Denise Findlay

“In the bush, knee-deep in snow, laying tobacco down and offering prayers of thank fulness for the life of my mother, I became aware of silence. It was full and rich and tangible: I could almost reach out and touch it. I smiled then. Smiled because it becomes so simple when you surrender grief to the ongoing act of living, to being to becoming. You become aware of the silences that exist between words, betweeen actions, choices, results, changes. That’s where you grow – in those silences. All that you feel is all that you are, and all that you know is all that you know, and you emerge from that silence ready to live out loud again: sore and blue and jublilant, outrageous and raucous and clamouring for more. The sound of slilence. The sound of self emerging.”

Richard Wagamese

Presentations

PARTIAL LIST

University of British Columbia Learning Circles
Rituals as Emotional Playgrounds October 2019, Raising Resilient Children – September & October 2018, Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools – February 2017, Cultivating Lateral Kindness – March and September 2016, Mindfulness: Tools for Restoring Balance – April 2016, The ABC’s of Growing Up – May 2016

The Neufeld Institute Annual Parent Conference
Making Sense of Aggression, Indigenous Approaches to Parenting, Indigenous Healing Rituals Through the Lens of Attachment and Emotion – Annually 2017, 2018, 2019

Nokiiwin Tribal Council, Mamaowenchige
Working Together Conference – Indigenous Healing Rituals Through the Lens of Attachment and Emotion – October 2019

Westside Preparatory School
Raising Resilient Children – October 2019

Lighting the Way Conference
Teaching the Heart – May 2017

Metis Women of British Columbia Conference
Resilience in Indigenous Communities – January 2019

Squamish Nation Health
Relationships Are Medicine – August 2019

Mohawk College Indigenous Services Department
Transforming Lateral Violence May 2017, August 2018, August 2019

First Nations Health Authority TB Prevention Services
Various Keynotes on the Impacts of

Trauma and Indigenous Approaches to Healing
Annually 2009 – present

First Nations Health Authority/Northern Health
Various Presentations on Trauma and Healing 2015 – 2019

Forestry Practices Board
Impacts of Colonization and Residential School – May 2019

Haisla First Nation
Various Presentations on Lateral Violence 2017 & 2018

University of British Columbia Early Years Conference
Annual Addresses 2015 to present on Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Regard to Resilience, Trauma and Healing

Maskwacis Health
Transforming Lateral Violence and Trauma Informed Care March 2017

Fraser Regional Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association
Raising Resilient Children – June 2018

First Nations Health Directors Association Regional Caucuses 
(5 regional keynotes) – Cultivating Lateral Kindness in Our Communities – October 2017

Big Stone Cree Health
Transforming Violence in Our Communities – May 2016

Vancouver Coastal Health for Parents of Children with a Mental Health Diagnosis
Hope, Harmony and Home October 2016

Bella Bella Community School Professional Day
Teaching the Heart – May 2017

Success By 6
Transforming the Legacy of Residential Schools – April 2017

Ts’zil Learning Centre 
Helping Students Heal Trauma – February 2017

Kenneth Gordon Maple Wood School
Raising Resilient Children – February 2017

Kitselas First Nation
Relationships Are Medicine – January 2017

Kitasoo First Nation 
Raising Resilient Children – March 2015