October 2025 Blog
Embracing the Season of Change: Moving Forward at Stardale with Reflection, Reconciliation, and Empowerment
As the leaves begin to turn and we start to see autumn settle in, the Stardale Women’s Group find this season especially resonant. Fall is always a time of change, of letting go, of slowing down enough to see what has been, and opening space for what might become. In the past we’ve hosted gatherings and events to honour and express our gratitude and appreciation for community and connection like our annual harvest feast.
While with our new direction at Stardale this year may look a bit different, more than ever, fall reminds us that change is not only natural, it is necessary. To heal, to bring about new chapters of growth.
How You Can Take Action
If you’ve been following along on our journey you’ve likely seen that at Stardale, we have been hard at work expanding how we bring our mission into the world. Our new service offerings build on nearly three decades of work in Indigenous education, cultural programming, and community empowerment, with culture at the heart of transformation. We have opened up a new chapter for Stardale with the aim of providing practical tools and deep cultural understanding that create lasting, positive change.
Here are just a few of the new ways we are offering hope, skill-building, and opportunity, and how you can get involved, learn, and help:
1. Culturally Grounded Curriculum Development
We help organizations, schools, and community groups embed Indigenous values and worldviews into curriculum and educational practices.
How you can act: If you are part of an educational setting you can request or support workshops that teach/implement culturally grounded curriculum. You can also follow along the development of the Stardale curriculum.
2. Facilitation & Difficult Conversations
Navigating issues like systemic racism, historical trauma, youth suicide, these are hard conversations, but essential. Stardale offers safe spaces and experienced facilitators to guide your conversations.
How you can act: Hold space for dialogues in your family, workplace, and community. Connect with the supports at Stardale to offer additional support in navigating these challenging conversations.
3. Leadership Development for Indigenous Women
Building leaders from within the community using Indigenous methodologies of collaboration, consensus, and wisdom. We are working to provide more opportunities for young Indigenous women to continue on their journeys of growth and empowerment.
How you can act: Explore film screenings and other offerings available through Stardale that involve our graduates and alumni. Supporting these initiatives directly offers the opportunity for these young women to grow their platform and share their stories.
4. Organizational Cultural Competency & Informed Practices
For any organization that works in or with Indigenous communities: learning what it means to act respectfully, knowledgeably, in ways that honour relationships, reciprocity, environment, and social justice. Making time and space for the education surrounding these informed practices.
How you can act: If you are in an organization, offering training, and hiring practices that reflect cultural competency is an excellent way to provide educational opportunities to your employees. Stardale offers a variety of workshops and facilitation to aid in your educational efforts.
By offering these services, Stardale not only provides tools for change, but invites everyone, individuals, institutions, and allies, to be part of the change. Education is not passive. Reconciliation is not symbolic. Empowerment is lived, shared, and nurtured. For full details on all our Stardale offerings or to inquire about bookings please visit our offerings page: https://www.stardale.org/offerings
Recap: Event in Honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
This year’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation gathering at The Grace Presbyterian Church was nothing short of profound. The evening was filled with moments of raw honesty, courage, and vulnerability. Around the room, tears were shed, stories were shared, and difficult truths were spoken out loud. The evening reminded all of us the importance of listening, learning, and holding space for one another. We are filled with so much gratitude for all of the individuals who came together to honor the stories and significance of this day.
What made the night so powerful was not only the emotion, but the genuine openness of everyone present. It was an evening of deep reflection, where real learning took place through conversation and connection. The willingness to come together in this way shows the strength of our community and the impact that truth and reconciliation continues to have on each of us.
For Stardale, this event was more than just a gathering, it marked a beautiful beginning to a new chapter in our journey. As we move forward, we remain committed to coming full circle in our work: supporting and empowering our girls as they grow into strong young women. The path of reconciliation is ongoing, but with every heartfelt conversation and every step toward understanding, we are building a future rooted in respect, healing, and hope.
We want to express our thanks as well to Lakeview Bakery and Caffe Beano for their contributions of cookies and coffee for the evening.
Looking Forward: What We All Can Do This Fall
As we watch the seasons change we are reminded that now is the perfect time to foster that same change in ourselves. Here are a few concrete actions you might take this fall season to contribute to education, reconciliation, and empowerment:
Consume content created by and supporting Indigenous peoples. Stardale offers a variety of films and content available for rental that directly support the work we do: https://vimeo.com/stardale
Attend community events, ceremonies, talks or host internal organizational events
Support Indigenous businesses, artists, and organizations.
Share and engage with content from Indigenous/Indigenous supporting organizations to help spread their messages.
Read books and engage with stories told by Indigenous peoples and knowledge keepers
