REGINA, Sask. — Two horses stood on the University of Regina’s Academic Green Wednesday, offering an unexpected introduction to a much larger story about Indigenous wellness, research, education and community.
Mooney and Jimmy were brought to campus by HMS Learning Through Equine as part of an open house showcasing Indigenous-focused spaces and programs connected to the university’s Roots to Wellness Research Collaboratory and Supporting Aboriginal Graduate Enhancement, or SAGE.
The event brought together three spaces inside the education building: the Nanâtawihowikamik Healing Lodge and Wellness Clinic, the Roots to Wellness Research Collaboratory team space and the SAGE space.
Dr. JoLee Sasakamoose, who leads Roots to Wellness, says the open house represents roughly 14 years of work developing programs that bring Indigenous approaches to wellness, research and education together.
She says the Healing Lodge is one of the most important pieces of that work.
“It’s the big showcase, the lodge where we train early career counsellors,” she said. “We also have healing and wellness activities that happen in here.”
Sasakamoose says the space is intentionally different from a conventional clinical or academic environment, incorporating ceremony, Elders, animals, nature and other elements of the environment into a broader understanding of wellness.
“You really feel the healing elements,” she said. “You feel what’s going on in the room.”
The Nanâtawihowikamik Healing Lodge and Wellness Clinic is also used as a training clinic for early-career counsellors and has been described by the university as a decolonized space for Indigenous mental health and wellness work.
Sasakamoose says the lodge has traditionally not been widely showcased because of its sacred nature, but she believes the time has come to introduce more people to the work taking place there.
“I think it’s definitely a value to our entire community and our region,” she said. “So it’s just time to show it.”
The open house also marked the launch of the University of Regina’s SAGE space, giving Indigenous master’s and PhD students a dedicated place to gather and support one another.
SAGE co-ordinator and graduate student Courtney Lavalley says the group began taking shape at the university earlier this year.
“It’s basically a space for Indigenous masters and PhD students to come and gather and learn from each other, you know, work through our learning journey together,” Lavalley said.
The program provides opportunities for academic, professional, cultural and personal development, including activities such as medicine gathering and sage picking.
Lavalley says Indigenous graduate students can face the challenge of navigating two different systems at once, making a dedicated community particularly important.
“As Indigenous people, we kind of walk in two worlds,” she said.
For Lavalley, the space also sends a message that Indigenous students belong at the highest levels of academic study.
“We deserve to be here, and we deserve that spot,” she said.
The University of Regina says its SAGE chapter is intended to provide connection and opportunities for cultural, academic, personal and professional development for Indigenous graduate students.
The open house extended beyond the university walls, with HMS Learning Through Equine bringing its horse-based healing program directly onto campus.
The Indigenous-owned and -operated organization partners with Roots to Wellness and the Nanâtawihowikamik Healing Lodge to provide culturally guided counselling and horse-based healing workshops. Its programs combine land- and animal-based practices with Indigenous knowledge and wellness approaches.
Founder Brittany Lawres says participants work directly with horses alongside counsellors, Elders and equine specialists.
“People who are wanting to gain a little bit of insight, reflection, awareness or healing in their life, they come, they work hands on with the horses,” Lawres said.
She says the program also works with youth, helping participants build confidence, awareness and a sense of empowerment.
For HMS, the horses are not simply part of a therapeutic activity. Lawres says the program approaches the relationship through an Indigenous lens.
“We run it very much as a ceremony with the horse,” she said. “We open with our prayer and our smudge. We end in prayer.”
Lawres says the horses are viewed as spiritual beings and teachers, while the program brings together Indigenous knowledge and professional counselling.
The partnership with Roots to Wellness is also creating an opportunity to evaluate the program and develop research around who can benefit from it.
Sasakamoose says that community connection is at the centre of the broader Roots to Wellness approach.
“The community tells us what they want, we kind of co-create it, help them get funded, we evaluate it and then eventually we would like to see sustainability and long-term plans,” she said.
The Roots to Wellness Research Collaboratory is a First Nations-led health research lab at the University of Regina focused on Indigenous wellness, ceremony and culturally grounded public health solutions, with research shaped through Indigenous governance and community-led approaches.
Sasakamoose says the work has grown well beyond a single research project or university program, with partnerships extending into communities and across different areas of health and wellness.
She says that growth is also giving the next generation an opportunity to carry the work forward.
“I’m really happy to see that because that’s the next generation taking over,” Sasakamoose said.
For Lavalley, Lawres and Sasakamoose, the open house offered something more significant than a tour of university rooms.
It gave visitors a chance to see how Indigenous wellness, graduate education, research, ceremony, animals and community relationships can exist together in one network of support.
And for Sasakamoose, that is what she hopes people ultimately take away.
“If they could come and see any of our programs just to understand what Indigenous wellness might look like, how it’s holistic, it includes animals, it includes nature, it includes different elements of the environment, includes our old people who are in the room across the hall,” she said.
“So it has ceremony, it has lots of different things that you might not think are involved in healing and wellness.”
