In 2023, Lajah worked with 10 Indigenous artists nationwide to create a virtual training for art organizations, based on what Indigenous artists want to see change in the arts. Bringing it back home, Lajah was asked to do this work again on a local scale.

With the support of Tah’lum, we are creating a locally informed, in-person version of this training to respond to the specific needs of Indigenous artists and art organizations in lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ territories.

After discussions with other local artists, I knew that art organizations here need to start from the ground at creating healthy relationships with Indigenous artists. Hence the name, Understanding the Soil, as we are hoping to create a training that shows that there are so many things that organizations need to do- from the roots- to respectfully grow relationships with Indigenous artists. 

The final outcome is a 3-part in-person training series in the fall of 2025, for a small group of art organizations. It will aim to build accountability, respect, and capacity for long-term relationships with Indigenous artists and communities.

What helps you feel safe, excited, and supported in art spaces? What’s working — and what’s not — when it comes to how art organizations show up for Indigenous artists?

Share your thoughts in the survey below! Your insights will help shape a training designed to support non-Indigenous-led organizations in creating more respectful, reciprocal, and culturally grounded relationships with Indigenous artists.

Are you interested in this Training?

Workshop Overview
This 3 day training experience is thoughtfully designed to explore what Indigenous artists here in Victoria want art organizations, curators, leaders, etc., to know. 

This workshop is purposeful, intimate, and experiential. It invites participants to question their roles, challenge structures of power in art spaces, and cultivate Indigenous-rooted frameworks for hosting with care, ceremony, and reciprocity.

This training isn’t just about actions we take, but about the roles we embody. Each day offers a chance to step into a different role — host, caretaker, and disruptor — as we reflect on what it means to share responsibility for culture, art, and community. Through discussions, circle, activities, and time for personal creative practice, participants are invited to experience these roles in a way that is both practical and deeply relational.

We welcome organizations, community leaders, and cultural workers who want to strengthen their understanding of how art and spirit intersect with responsibility. 

For this first round of the training, we are providing it FREE OF CHARGE for a small, intimate group. This will be hosted by local Songhees artist and founder of Nova Arts Hub- Lajah Warren. 

Who Should Attend?
This workshop is ideal for:

  • Curators and organizers looking to deepen ethical or relational practices.
  • Arts administrators and educators seeking to build spiritual and communal frameworks for cultural events.
  • Museum and gallery staff interested in reimagining space-making and accountability in Indigenous contexts.

Why Attend?

  • Relational Ethics in Practice – Host art as relationship, responsibility, and reciprocity.
  • Deep Self-Reflection – Through circle-based conversations, participants pause to examine how colonial conditioning can inform intention.
  • Embodied Learning – Ground conversations in ceremony, play, and collaborative artmaking—not theory alone.
  • Tools for Transformation – Leave with models of accountability, care, and hosting that can inform your practice and space.
Click here to register

May-June

Consultation

We will focus on witnessing the stories from local Indigenous artists to gain an understanding of what's needed for Indigenous artists to exist within art spaces in this area. This will be done through doing a resource scan, consultation with Indigenous artists, and anonymous surveys.

July-August

Weaving it Together

Bringing all this information together, Lajah will create the training content, based on the consultations and the previous training materials from the Cultural Curation Project's virtual training.

Fall 2025

Training Pilot

In the Fall, a pilot of this training will be offered to select art organizations in the greater victoria area.