In November 2024, TRAction co-lead Sandra Lamouche shared her new work, Out of Wounds, at Nozhem: First Peoples’ Performance Space at Trent University in Peterborough, ON. Out of Wounds is born from the sensory experience of dealing with racial trauma and anxiety. During a time of heightened anxiety, Lamouche found the healing power of wagimauskigan, the diamond willow fungus, an organism that her mother and her grandfather used to burn for smudge and prayer. Valued for its scent among Cree people, Lamouche discovered that Cree women would also carve the fungus, fashioning beads for necklaces from it for spiritual protection. This discovery – which mimicked Lamouche’s spontaneous use of the fungus to heal her own wounds – led her to use that blood memory to inspire a journey of awakening, transformation, healing and resilience.
Working with her older brother, Kevin Cardinal, a visual artist and knowledge holder, Lamouche was able to deepen her understanding of the teaching and medicine of the wagimauskigan, creating a performance work that focuses on connection to the land and emphasizing the need to speak up for justice, human rights and climate resilience. The work was supported by Dancer’s Studio West (Calgary, AB), Santa Fe Art Institute (Santa Fe, NM), Dancing Earth (Santa Fe, NM), Canada Council for the Arts, Trent University (Peterborough, ON), and Calgary Arts Development (Calgary, AB).