Land-based healing is an essential part of Indigenous ways of community collective care, wellbeing and spiritual wellness. Settler-colonialism has severely disrupted Indigenous peoples connection to the Land, and has violently impacted Indigenous communities and people through the creation of prisons and incarceration. Trauma, as a result of incarceration and criminalization, has harmed Indigenous communities through separating families, prohibiting culture and tradition, and effecting holistic wellness. The Land teaches and guides for how to care for ourselves, our Nations, and the Land, while providing emotional and spiritual healing and rejuvenation. Indigenous peoples and communities articulate the importance of returning to the Land, in order to heal trauma that is a result of settler-colonial incarceration and criminalization.

This presentation will focus on sharing research findings which resulted in, and created, an Indigenous Land-based Healing Program Framework for individuals who have been effected by incarceration or criminalization. The framework has been created by the Indigenous community of Splatsin, and continues to be adapted by other Indigenous people in British Columbia, Canada, who have been directly impacted by incarceration, or have been incarcerated. The Land-based Healing Program Framework is intended to be adapted and altered to fit other Indigenous Nations needs, while amplifying Indigenous voices and modalities of traditional healing. The framework includes important Indigenous values and modalities of healing which are rooted in the Land, water, and community collective care, and incorporating community roles, seasonal activities, language, ceremony, spirituality, and Western healing methods (therapy, and external resources).