Grief Resource Hub to Support Indigenous Youth and Communities

Grief is a universal human experience, yet for Indigenous peoples, it is often marked by a unique and profound sense of historical and spiritual weight. This grief flows from deep connections to land, ancestors, and cultural practices. Even when these connections have been disrupted, they remain psychologically and spiritually present every day.

This type of loss encompasses not just the people who have walked on, but also the enduring impact of separation from their language, ceremony, and ways of being that are central to identity and restoring balance. For youth and families, this can create a complex emotional landscape, where personal sorrow intertwines with collective memory, and where mainstream models of grief that emphasize individual closure can feel isolating or incomplete.

An Indigenous lens offers an essential and deeply rooted perspective: it frames grief as an integral, honored part of the circle of life, a natural counterpart to love that is held collectively both by community and spirit. This hub is an invitation into that expansive view. It is a place for learning these wisdom traditions and for the crucial unlearning of assumptions that can cause harm. By exploring this lens, we are not just adding a tool to our toolkit but are transforming the very foundation of how we offer care. Our hope is that this space serves as both a mirror for Indigenous community members, validating the strength of their own ways of knowing, and a window for allies and caregivers, building bridges of profound respect and more effective support.

Articles:

• Walking Together: Understanding Grief and Loss in Native Youth explores culturally responsive approaches to supporting Native youth through grief and loss, authored by Teresa Brewington, Coharie enrolled and Lumbee descendant.
• Indigenous Community Healing and Resilience highlights the ways in which Indigenous communities address trauma via culturally-grounded practices, emphasizing collective healing, spirituality, storytelling, and resilience rooted in tradition.
• Walking in Two Worlds: Toward an Indigenist Ecological Systems Model for Group Therapy introduces a culturally grounded framework for group therapy that honors Indigenous identity and ecological systems.
• For the Love of Our Children: An Indigenous Connectedness Framework presents a holistic model emphasizing relationality and cultural connectedness in supporting Indigenous children and families.
• Designing with Families for Just Futures examines collaborative design practices with Indigenous families to create equitable and culturally sustaining educational futures.
• The Seven Teachings are guiding principles that serve as a moral foundation for Indigenous communities, helping restore tradition and identity that may have been suppressed previously.

Guidebooks & Activities:

• We Matter – Toolkit for Indigenous Youth: An interactive toolkit with downloadable PDF and video sessions, including sections on loss and coping specifically tailored to Indigenous youth. Promotes cultural pride, resilience, and self-care through accessible activities.
• “Grief & Loss” Community Healing Workbook: Produced by the Indigenous Death Doula Collective (Canada), this self-guided PDF uses the Medicine Wheel framework—Spiritual, Heart, Mind, Body—to support wellness through grief. Included activities: smudging, journaling, creative arts, self-care, and connection to land and ceremony.
• “Walk With Me: Indigenous Suicide Bereavement” Workbook: A downloadable workbook offering journaling, drawing, coloring, and poetry prompts designed for Indigenous communities impacted by suicide loss. Authored by Manataka American Indian Council and supported by Calgary Foundation, it encourages reflection through culturally rooted exercises.
• Native American Discussion Guide for Grief & Bereavement A culturally-informed discussion guide outlining Native views on grief: ancestral presence, spiritual continuity, and communal healing. Includes prompts for conversations within schools or care settings.

Books:

AGES 4–8

• • And They Walk On by Kevin Noble Maillard (Seminole): A poetic picture book introducing the concept of “walking on,” rooted in Native traditions that frame death as a continuation rather than an end. It helps young children understand loss through gentle imagery and cultural wisdom. **
  • Fluffy and the Stars by T’áncháy Redvers (Dene and Métis): This tender story follows Shay and their beloved dog Fluffy through the joys of friendship and the heartbreak of saying goodbye. When Fluffy becomes ill, Shay feels angry and afraid, but their bond – and Fluffy’s gentle reassurance – helps Shay understand that love lasts beyond loss. Written by T’áncháy Redvers (Dene and Métis), a two-spirit storyteller from Deninu K’ue First Nation in Treaty 8 territory, the book offers a caring, culturally grounded introduction to grief and healing for young readers.

AGES 9–12

• • Tess’s Red Dress: Honouring Love and Family by Carolyn Roberts (Interior Salish/Coast Salish): Explores grief through the lens of Red Dress Day, a ceremony honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. Highlights remembrance and cultural resilience, with guidance for adults to support conversations. ** NOTE will be available in Spring 2026.
  • Northern Lights: The Soccer Trails by Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak (Inuit): This picture book tells the story of Kataujaq, a young Inuit girl whose name means “rainbow.” After losing her beloved mother to a sudden illness, Kataujaq grieves quietly for years until her grandmother shares a comforting tradition: the Northern Lights are the souls of departed loved ones, joyfully playing a game of celestial soccer. Through this tender tale, children are introduced to Inuit beliefs about the aurora borealis and offered a gentle, hopeful way to understand grief and remembrance.

AGES 12–18+

• • Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo (Muscogee): Joy Harjo – the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate and a member of the Muscogee Nation – reflects on the profound grief of losing her mother through an Indigenous lens. Blending memoir, poetry, and song, Harjo weaves ancestral stories, Muscogee traditions, and natural imagery into a spiritual map of healing, showing how ritual, art, and cultural memory sustain her through loss and guide her toward justice and belonging. **
  • Becoming a Matriarch: A memoir by Helen Knott (Dene-zaa, Cree): Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was. Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
  • The Fragments That Remain by Mackenzie Angeconeb (Anishinaabe): A striking novel (fiction) portrayed through letters and poems written by two siblings sharing their grief of cultural loss and, later, suicide. Andy writes letters to her deceased brother Ally as she navigates a life without him. Andy pieces together memories and identity shaped by her brother’s voice after discovering the poetry he left behind. Rooted in Anishinaabe culture, the story weaves grief, Indigenous identity, and healing into a poignant tribute to shared life and loss. **
  • The Everlasting Road by Wab Kinew (Anishinaabe)
    In this sequel (fiction) to Walking in Two Worlds, Bugz grapples with her brother Waawaate’s death from cancer. To cope, she retreats into the “Floraverse,” a virtual world infused with Anishinaabe mythology and a digital version of her brother. The novel blends grief, technology, and Indigenous wisdom to explore loss, memory, and the continuity of relationships across worlds. **
  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer:  A powerful blend of Indigenous knowledge and Western science that explores the deep, reciprocal relationship between humans and the natural world. Through storytelling and ecological insight, Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a botanist, shares teachings on gratitude, reciprocity, and stewardship rooted in Indigenous traditions, such as the Honorable Harvest. While not a grief-specific book, its reflections on interconnectedness and cycles of life offer comfort and meaning for those navigating loss, inviting readers to see plants and ecosystems as relatives and teachers. This perspective provides a pathway for healing both the Earth and ourselves through ceremony, language, and relational ethics.

Videos:

• Living My Culture – First Nations Series is a video series sharing First Nations perspectives on end-of-life care and cultural practices.
• Dying at Home – Expectations of Care highlights cultural expectations and family roles in home-based care within First Nations communities.
• Sesame Workshop: Supporting Grieving Native American Children and Families offers practical tools and culturally sensitive strategies for helping Native children cope with grief.

Apps:

• Connections App is a Canadian resource designed to support Indigenous youth transitioning out of care, fostering cultural identity and community connection.
• AIMhi Stay Strong App is a culturally adapted mental health and wellness tool designed for Indigenous communities, originally developed for First Nations Australians. It uses visual storytelling, such as a “strength tree”, to help users identify personal strengths, worries, and goals, while integrating cultural values and language. Though intended for use with clinicians, it can also support individuals in building resilience and emotional well-being through a framework that honors Indigenous perspectives and traditions.

Support Programs:

• White Bison – Wellbriety & Mending Broken Hearts Programs (USA & Canada)
  White Bison leads the Wellbriety Movement, offering culturally based healing programs for Indigenous communities. Their Mending Broken Hearts program provides grief support circles and workshops for youth and families, using traditional teachings, talking circles, and ceremonies to address loss and intergenerational trauma.
• WeRNative (USA)
  WeRNative is a Native-led platform that provides culturally responsive grief resources, mental health support, and traditional healing practices for Indigenous youth and families across the United States. It includes counseling referrals, educational content, and community engagement tools.
• Lumara Grief & Bereavement Care Society – Indigenous Wellness Program (Canada)
  Lumara offers culturally safe grief support for Indigenous families across Canada through Elder-led virtual workshops, land-based healing, and community gatherings. Developed in partnership with the First Nations Health Authority, this program integrates traditional practices and community care to support youth and families navigating loss. Learn more.
• Healing Indigenous Hearts (British Columbia, Canada)
  This initiative provides peer-led grief circles for families impacted by substance-related deaths in Indigenous communities throughout British Columbia. Facilitators with lived experience guide sharing circles using traditional protocols and cultural teachings, creating safe spaces for collective healing.
• Anderson Therapy – Grief & Bereavement Services (Northern Canada, Ontario, Quebec)
  Anderson Therapy offers culturally informed grief counseling for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis youth and families through one-on-one sessions, art therapy, and virtual support. Services are designed to honor Indigenous traditions while providing accessible care for remote communities.
• Kids Help Phone – Indigenous Programming (Canada)
  Kids Help Phone offers free, 24/7 confidential support for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis youth through phone and text services staffed by Indigenous-trained responders. The program includes peer forums and culturally tailored resources to help youth and families cope with grief.
• Running Strong for American Indian Youth empowers Indigenous youth and families by combining direct relief (food, water, shelter) with programs that promote education, cultural revitalization, health, and leadership development.
• Four Winds Foundation preserves and teaches Indigenous ways of living through ceremonies, teachings, and community programs like sweat lodges and sharing circles that reconnect individuals to spirit, land, and cultural practices.

Special Thanks to Emily Timberlake, Eluna Resource Center Intern, for supporting the research & development of this hub.