Circle of Life Gathering: Survivors of Suicide, Journey

This year will be our final year of a four year journey.  We are going to hold a Gathering for families, friends and anyone who has felt the pain of suicide loss. This year we will hold the Gathering without Elder Peter Kinew. We will miss his guidance, knowledge and Teachings. The journey began with Peter Kinew, Don Courchene, Ron McDonald and Sally MacDonald. The journey may have been started through common experience of pain, but the journey has resulted in renewed hope. That is what the journey is all about; hope that we can manage the hurt, that we are not alone, and that maybe others will not have to experience that hurt; the hurt of losing someone through suicide. The Gatherings do not belong to us. The Gatherings are meant for everyone. We are merely part of the journey.

This year the journey will be again a two day Gathering held at the Circle of Life Thunderbird House in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The date is set for June 25, 26,2013. Each year we have held the Gatherings with a theme in mind. This year we are thinking about "keep them alive".  Keep them alive is a feeling about our family and friends that have gone. We keep them alive with our love, our thoughts and our speaking about them, never forgetting them. Keep them alive is also about making sure we don't lose anyone. The first day will be devoted to Prevention of Suicide.

We need someone to facilitate the first day of the Gathering. Someone who will set the day for Prevention strategies and practices. Someone to host the first day and all that is required in a day Gathering. Please contact us and let us know if you are the person, or that group that can take on the first day.

The second day of the Gathering is for Sharing. Sharing our hopes about going forward after a suicide. We will ask people to come and share their life with us. We will close the day with a Thank You. We will Feast our Loved Ones and have a GiveAway for them as well.

The Thank You is to all those that have been part of the journey. Those that shared at the Gathering. Those that shared their experience, their time, their resources, their kindness to the Gathering. If not for all of you, the journey would have not been possible. There are so many of you that helped. We hope that you will come and take part in the Gathering. So we can say Kitchi Miigwich, Big Thank You.

Please contact: rightojibwe@yahoo.ca   or scourchene@hotmail.com  204-470-5207, Steve