Choose Your Wellness Adventure at Indigenous Health and Wellness Day

Gdoo-maawnjidimi Mompii Indigenous Student Services (GMISS) invites Indigenous students, faculty and staff at TMU to join us for a day of health and wellness activities, including a traditional lunch, making wellness bundles, drumming and more.

What to expect

Indigenous community members at TMU are invited to take a break, find balance and enhance well-being through a day of activities that promote self-care (spiritual, emotional, physical and intellectual). 

This year’s theme is “Choose Your Wellness Adventure.” Participants will have a variety of activities to choose from as we make efforts to find our way to balance and wellness, including yoga, puppy therapy, making sweet grass braids and wellness bundles, card reading and chair massages. 

Chef Tawyna Brent will host a traditional food workshop alongside knowledge keepers, and Tawyna will provide a traditional lunch that is sure to please.

Weather permitting, we will end the day with a sacred fire from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by a social fire with hot dogs and marshmallows between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. 

Registration is encouraged.

Schedule of events (drop-in or join us for the whole day)

• 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. – Your wellness journey begins with a hands-on cooking workshop experience with Chef Tawnya Brant, who is Kanyen'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from the Six Nations of the Grand River. Learn more about Chef Brant (external link) .
• 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. – Enjoy a traditional lunch with Chef Brant.
• 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. – Embark on your wellness adventure! Explore a variety of stations to build a wellness day that works for you. Activities include card reading, smudging, puppy therapy and building wellness bundles.
• 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. – Let your mind and spirit relax as you join Amy Desjarlais in drumming and singing. Bring your drums and shakers if you have them; bring your voices and hearts if you don’t.
• 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Weather pending, join us in the Kerr Hall Quad for a sacred fire. Every adventure comes with a time for slowing down, bringing your body, mind, spirit and feelings back to balance.
• 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. – We will end the day with food, laughter and fun around a social fire with hotdogs and marshmallows. 

This event is wheelchair accessible

The university is committed to the accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities. If you require any additional accessibility accommodations to ensure your full participation, please let us know on the registration form or email Bradley Gibson at bradley.gibson@torontomu.ca. 

Questions? 

If you have any questions, please contact Bradley Gibson, Indigenous Academic Support Advisor, Gdoo-maawnjidimi Mompii Indigenous Student Services at bradley.gibson@torontomu.ca.