Ganawenden, hopes to break stereotypes of Indigenous culture

A new group hopes to take away the misconceptions people have about the Indigenous people in the community.

Ganawenden is the name of a new organization that offers talks on Indigenous cultural and sensitivity training in Waterloo region.

Amanda Trites co-founded the group after consistently hearing the stereotypes people have about Indigenous peoples which she said included incarceration rates and residential schools.

"There was still the thought process that we were just 'whining', or 'we need to get over it', and 'we get everything for free'. None of that was being dealt with," said Trites.

"[There was] never talk about the consequences of those things or how to help the Indigenous population now."

What started with school groups, led to talks with victim services, counsellors and teachers to give them a modern day reality of what is happening.

Workshop scenario

The three hour workshop is held in the traditional Indigenous oral storytelling. 

Trite said they usually start out asking people what their knowledge is on Indigenous culture.

And they don't want politically correct answers.

The group attempts to change the mostly negative comments they've heard and try to change it to a positive.

"We need to know the past and we need to understand the past but knowing and understanding the past isn't so much helping with today," said Trites.  " We need to have a combination of the past and present and what we can make for that future."

Trites and her group hope to have workshops with teachers, counsellors, police and lawyers.