Over the summer of 2020 during a global pandemic, a small group of professionals got together over Zoom to discuss offering services to Indigenous communities across Canada. Initially the group got together as a sort of ad hoc group ruminating about a shared traumatic experience to debrief. What made this particular experience interesting is that it occurred while working in an Indigenous educational cultural center. You have to admire the courage it took for them to come forward in an environment that was laden with lateral violence and oppression.
Why this is significant to the initial founding group, is because lateral violence in indigenous communities happens and no one talks about it openly. This group of professionals are attempting to make sense of a senseless episode.