Body and Soul Lab

Oasis, Space of Healing - A community dedicated to sharing decolonial healing practices by, for, and with survivors

Welcome to our Body & Soul space.

Territorial Grounding and Recognition of Indigenous Knowledge

We would like to take a moment to acknowledge that the Body&Soul project, part of the Change Lab, took place on Turtle Island, specifically on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation, one of Quebec’s 11 First Nations. This ancestral territory, known as Tiohtià:ke, means “the place where the currents meet” in the Mohawk language.

As allies in Indigenous decolonial resistance, we acknowledge the history, heritage, and diversity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, as well as their contributions, both past and present. We also wish to highlight the ongoing impacts of colonialism on these communities.

We recognize that the gender-based and sexual violence experienced by Indigenous people is rooted in structural and systemic inequalities, fueled by discrimination and social norms. These realities manifest, in particular, as disproportionate impacts on Indigenous girls, women, and two-spirit people.

Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the organization Righting Relations and to the Elders we met, for their guidance and the insights they shared throughout our process. The Body&Soul project was developed with a focus on recognizing and valuing Indigenous knowledge, in line with a culturally safe approach to preventing gender based and sexual violence.

Body & Soul

In the pages that follow, you will discover the journey of a group of nine people who have experienced gender-based and sexual violence and who participated in the Change Lab project. This online space was designed as a platform for communication and sharing, both for other survivors of violence and for our allies.

We invite you to follow us through this year-long process, during which we cultivated decolonial and alternative approaches to healing, both personal and collective. This journey ended in a multidisciplinary art exhibition centered on storytelling as a tool for sharing, memory, resistance, and collective healing.

It was an honor for me to accompany this project and to support what it became for the participants and for myself: an Oasis.

The archives and memories gathered here aim to endure over time, so that they, in turn, may offer support, inspiration, and alternative paths to healing for other survivors.

Evelyne Marchal Ferriere, 2026

Connect with Body and Soul

About Our Lab

Developed in partnership with Righting Relations Canada, the Change Lab Body & Soul was designed to create a community of sharing and peerhood for people who have experienced gender-based violence. The project aims to provide a safe space where survivors can make their voices heard, share their stories of resilience, and actively participate in processes of personal and collective healing in aims to impact social change toward gender based violence.

Our approach is rooted in feminist, intersectional, and decolonial perspectives that value lived knowledge, empower survivors, and recognize the importance of collective healing as a source for social transformation.

Across the year, the project unfolded through workshops and healing circles, including art therapy, dance, gardening, sharing circles, African percussion, and grounded movement, supporting participants to explore forms of artistic and bodily expression that foster healing and the affirmation of agency.

This journey continued with a multidisciplinary art exhibition centered on storytelling as a therapeutic tool for sharing and recognizing stories of resilience.

Finally, the project continues today through this online space for living memory, dedicated to sharing the project’s stories, reflections, and archives to highlight the importance to value transmission. Designed as an open portal, it aims to support other survivors, foster a community of solidarity, and contribute to the development of transformative justice practices in response to gender-based violence.

A group photo of approximately 25 people

CHAPTER 1: Stepping into the Making of Our Oasis World

Enter - Safety as a Starting Point

Healing begins with safety.

Not just the absence of danger, but the presence of connection.

“Safety is not just the absence of threat, it’s the presence of connection”—Stephen Porges

Creating a space where:

Emotional safety in our storytelling is prioritized,
Our well-being depends on collective well-being,
Preventing conflict through collective responsibility.
- We move through sensitivity,
- We act through care.

Returning to the body

Reconnecting with the body fosters awareness and self-regulation.

The body is not a tool to be corrected.

It is already perfect.

“When you’re moving your body, you’re already perfect just as you are and just as you dance”.

Movement becomes:

A tool for healing, restoring what has been hurt,
A tool for presence, grounding us in the moment,
A tool for rebuilding, creating space for growth.

“Our spirit decides where it goes, and our body follows”.

The ground will always hold you.

We can lean on the ground, not just to get back up but to refocus.

“The earth is not a backdrop. It supports us.

The earth and nature carry our memories.

Exploring the resilience of plants and humans.

Recognizing transgenerational resilience as well as transgenerational trauma.

The ground becomes a partner.

The garden becomes a metaphor for healing”.

Relying on greater forces

When we lack inner strength, we can find support elsewhere.

Finding inspiration in greater forces than ourselves, through music, to let the body move freely: when we lack inner strength, dance and music help us draw on external forces.

“Music supports movement”.

“Movement supports the journey”.

Quotidien -

Through our Instagram page, @Body&Soul and during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based and Sexual Violence, we created an online decolonial space of living memory. Designed as a place to share stories and life journeys, this space highlights the narratives of project participants, inviting us to rediscover and question the meaning of archives and memory. It aims to document these personal and collective journeys, made up of moments from everyday life, back-and-forths, and transformations, all part of processes of healing.

“Becoming aware that the violence affecting us individually is the same violence that is part of all human oppression and planetary environmental destruction—and that our healing is also collective and spiritual.” – Anonymous

"Everyone experiences it differently. The actions of those who want to support strength in others are far more important than we might think. Thank you for being there.” – Anonymous

“My community welcomed me during my darkest moments. They respected my choices and my way of facing them. They were my pillar, my comfort, and my path toward healing. And even after that, they remain my sources of strength, my joys, and my loves.” – Anonymous

CHAPTER 2: Opening the Oasis

“Don’t step into my soul with your shoes.” – Natasha Kanapé Fontaine

An art gallery project that explores the role of storytelling and the imagination as therapeutic tools for healing and amplifying voices, centered on the power of action and the magic of creation.

Our approach is rooted in a process that values the transmission of knowledge, encourages a slow and gentle creative process, supports collective healing, celebrates speaking out, and preserves everyone’s artistic freedom.

ADD VIDEOS

From our multidisciplinary exhibition:

Inspired by kintsugi, my work transforms pieces of lived experience into a river that carries us instead of drowning us. Gold outlines a halo around a tear-stained face; the survivor becomes a broken yet luminous figure. Each wounded piece turns into light, and the tears, a river of tears, wash, reveal, and begin again - by Ana.
Mixed media (canvas, paper, plaster, porcelain, and gold leaf)
Poems I found in some old (and not so old) shitty emails - by Noeli
Blue Sleepless Nights - Janice
At night, my blue thoughts overwhelm me just when I’m trying to fall asleep.

Navigating in Broad Daylight - by Janice
I navigate through life with depression, resilience, and perseverance.
“My Timeless, Blossoming Tongue”, by Lilian Vianey Torres Merino
A series of frames that speak to one another, shifting meaning depending on whether you look from afar or up close.
1. Feathered sea
  Our ancestors call to us. The stars guide us, whenever we feel alone or lost, all we
  need is to look up at the sky: there is a unique path for each of us.
  My daughter found this feather by the Mayan Sea; it showed us the way toward
  the polar bear. My grandmother gifted us a poncho. I put three woven threads
  from it so we could feel her close to us.
  “Feathered Sea.” Acrylic on canvas, dried flowers, and mixed materials.
2. Mama bear
  What does it mean to be strong?
  Perhaps it is to stay true—and soft—to your deepest self, no matter the
  circumstances beyond your control.
  “Mama Bear.” Collage with mixed materials, dried flowers, and a seashell.
3. What time is it?
  “What time is it? It’s healing time.”
  Acrylic on canvas, dried flowers and leaves, mirrors.
4. Love
  I once wrote that I wished for a heart-shaped mirror.
  This summer gifted me this one. It was raining, I was crying. I sat on the ground;
  she looked at me. In that moment, I became true to myself.
  “Love.” Acrylic on canvas, dried flowers, and mirror.
Time Travel - by Evelyne
A journey to the heart of a universe where different timelines meet, clash, and connect. Past, present, and future overlap, and reflections, places, and people leave lasting marks. This path toward healing is not straight or logical, but its cracks and edges become the guide.
MONICA
La Reine - Ninisplayground, aka Lourdenie JeanEver since I was young, I was made to feel that my body didn’t belong to me. I developed curves at a very young age, and that was quickly used against me to rob me of my childhood. I still remember my first catcall. I constantly relive the same paralysis of a 12-year-old who doesn’t understand how anyone could be so violent.
At the same time, people tried to “protect” me by controlling me even more. “Too short, too tight”—in every case, I was told that my body was offensive.

“La Reine” is a response to all this politicization. This work is a space where I reclaim my sensuality so that it belongs to no one but me. It represents my alter ego of the same name, with her oversized self-esteem, bordering on the arrogance also found in my short story “Doppelgänger.” In this story, we follow her macabre revenge against an aggressor who catcalled her. The statements are excerpts from the text describing her, serving as a reminder that her magic is the only true power in the situation.

Thank you

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the community partners who supported and participated in this project.

Thank you to the facilitators of the healing workshops; Akinyi Alouch, Danni Okemaw, Misanka Mupesse, Alyah Sol, Laurence from Ethnika Holistique, and Lee Igram—for their guidance and the safe spaces for sharing they created.

A special thank you to Lourdenie Jean, artistic creation coordinator, as well as to our corporate partners for the tokens of appreciation—Mimi & August, Healing Resistance Bodywork, Metaphysical Bodywork, Alma Plantes, and Maktaba Bookshop. Thank you also to SHIFT for providing the exhibition space.

Thank you to our partner Righting Relations for their support, trust, and for the inspiration that they were for this project.

And finally, a special thank you to the Educonnexion team who made this project possible: Stéphanie Germain – Director, Evelyne Marchal-Ferriere, Jessica Lachontch, and Erykah Kangbeya.