located on Chá7elkwnech (Gambier Island) in Átl'ḵa7tsem (Howe Sound, bc)  

In-person only

This unique experience is designed for participants to come in pairs: one church leader and one young adult!

Registration is via our registration platform, SmartRec. Register now!

• $1200 per pair ($600 per person) for double accommodation in Craigcroft building. Please have each participant register individually here: Decolonization is a Community Act - double room | Event Registration | Chinook Winds & Pacific Mountain Regions UCCan Store

• $1000 per pair ($500 per person) for sleeping in a cabin with up to 6 people. Please have each participant register individually here: Decolonization is a Community Act - cabin | Event Registration | Chinook Winds & Pacific Mountain Regions UCCan Store

• Sources of funding include the PMRC Congregational Learning Fund for Leaders (for lay and ministry personnel), the HR MacMillan Fund for Clergy at VST, the Kaufman Renewal & Emergency Fund (for diaconal ministers)

• Communities of Faith - why not sponsor a young adult in your community to take part?

• Call or email LeaderShift for registration assistance if needed!

Registration closes February 10, 2026.

Decolonization is a Community Act—Whether that work is in oneself or tied to broader institutional change, it must unfold in a circle alongside Indigenous voices, guiding hands, and the community. 

This is a land-based 4-day camp that will be held at Camp Fircom on beautiful Gambier Island in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territory. Participants will engage in a land-based immersive experience led by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh knowledge-holders and land-based practitioners.  

during this unique opportunity, you will:

Dngage in a land-based immersive experience with other church leaders and young adults

Have the opportunity to develop capacities within yourself that will help actualize the vision of The United Church of Canada to heal relationships within communities

Through facilitation, consider culture and healing by critiquing the perpetuation of colonizing perspectives in conventional trauma-informed mental health approaches

Be supported with taking action in helping Indigenous communities and acknowledging the United Church's role in upholding colonialism and racism

Accommodation, Meals, Travel

All accommodation, meals, and travel by water taxi to Camp Fircom are included.

• Accommodation will be: shared with one other person (in Craigcroft building - dormitory style, shared bathroom down the hall), or up to 6 people (in a cabin - communal bathrooms in wash house). For more information, see Accommodations — Camp Fircom

• Water taxi leaves for Camp Fircom from the Horseshoe Bay Public Dock at 3 pm Tuesday, and leaves Camp Fircom at 1 pm Friday

• We highly recommend taking public transit or being dropped off in Horseshoe Bay to avoid the hassle and cost of parking.

• Public transit: The 250 Horseshoe Bay and 257 Horseshoe Bay Express both leave from downtown Vancouver. Both buses drop passengers two blocks from the Horseshoe Bay Public Dock.

• Parking: BC Ferries Parking ($20-$24/day) offers short-term and long-term parking lots, not far from the Horseshoe Bay Public Dock.

Tselkxáliya (Dr Denise findlay)

Tselkxáliya (Dr Denise Findlay) is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh scholar practitioner from the village of Xwemélch’stn with a PhD from the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University.  

Denise is a published academic author whose background is in Philosophy of Educational Theory and Practice, and the recipient of a Social Sciences Humanities Research Council Scholarship (Canadian Graduate Scholarship) for her community-based research.  

Denise is an autobiographical writer who leads with her Sḵwx̱wú7mesh  wisdom and weaves knowledges from the fields of Indigenous education, developmental sciences, and contemplative inquiry.  

Denise’s academic research and community work is focused on the cultivation of educator and practitioner wisdom and presence. Denise intersects Sḵwx̱wú7mesh knowledges and ways of being with Indigenous contemplative educational theories and practices in her healing-centred work families and communities.

gathering our medicine team

Gathering Our Medicine: Strengthening and Healing Kinship Through Culture is a program created by Sḵwx̱wú7mesh scholar-practitioner Denise Findlay to support parents, caregivers and other adults caring for Indigenous children and youth who may be experiencing mild to moderate mental health challenges such as anxiety and depression. 

The Gathering Our Medicine approach centres culture and kinship as the best medicine and most natural context for supporting health and well-being for families, children and youth, while also being trauma and developmentally informed.