Tucked away in a wooded area in New Hamburg is Crow Shield Lodge, an Indigenous land-based education and healing space with a mission to ‘walk alongside those in need of healing.'
“We want the lodge to be an experience, not just a place, but a place of belonging and connection. When you come here, it is a circle where everyone is equal and everything else is left outside,” Clarence Cachagee, founder of Crow Shield Lodge, told CambridgeToday last February.
Cachagee, who was separated from his family in the Sixties Scoop, when an estimated 20,000 Indigenous children were placed in foster care with white families, created the lodge as a place of healing after experiencing addiction and homelessness at an early age.
“We have everything from our Mother Earth. Our connection to the land is so important. To be able to give this to individuals who are broken and in need of healing, this is a space where there is unconditional love and no barriers.”
And the need for healing grows.
“The need is so big, we are currently looking to find a second site. There shouldn’t be any barriers for those wanting to heal,” Cachagee said.
Today, the search for a second location is underway.
“We’ve started pursuing and talking to people about a second site. We are in talks with the Region of Waterloo, the City of Cambridge, and property owners,” Cachagee said.
