Ella Paul
Ella Paul is from the Mi'kmaq Nation, born in Truro, Nova Scotia and raised in Sipekne’katik and Millbrook. She is a widow, a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Ella's career focused on the advancement of First Nations peoples. In her retirement, Ella works with adults and youth who are in trouble with the law. She holds Healing Circles, Restorative Justice Circles, and Sentencing Circles.
Ceremony allows me to see more deeply
Ella explains how participating in ceremony allows her to see her grief and her life with greater depth. (0:59)
Other content for:
First Nations - Grief, Loss, Dying, and Death
- One year to grieve (1:27)
- Moving to the spirit world (1:37)
- Helping others mourn and heal (2:29)
- Grief comes in waves (0:57)
- A time to cry (1:10)
- Honour and let go (1:33)
- Returning to my culture (0:53)
- Letting go (2:16)
- The anger of grief (1:19)
- Group help for grief (2:02)
- Traditions and grief (1:55)
- Family grief and healing (0:39)
- Indigenous Voices: Honouring Our Loss and Grief (23:07)
- Burial traditions in my community (1:26)
- Burial traditions in my community (1:26)
- From the AIDS Crisis to COVID: The Importance of End-of-Life Rituals (1:28)
- The sacred fire (1:27)
- Symbols of remembrance (1:09)
- The relationship continues (1:39)
- The Memorial Quilt Project (2:03)
- Honouring and remembering our Two-Spirit community (1:26)
- Erased in death: Honouring Two-Spirit identities (0:49)
- Responding to grief and loss in a tangible way (1:08)
- Healing collectively as a community (1:30)
- Acknowledging caregivers (0:58)
- When we couldn’t speak our grief (1:12)
- Two-Spirit lives and loss in the AIDS epidemic (1:49)
- Healing together (0:31)
- The trauma of loss (0:57)
- We all grieve in our own way (2:31)
- Taking time (0:37)
- Take note of the drag queens (1:11)
- Life continues forward (0:37)
- A journey of letting go (1:04)
- Remembering our missing sons (1:24)
- Becoming an advocate after the death of a loved one (1:15)
- Dignity for transgender patients (1:31)
- Why we need to talk about loss (1:25)
- Before colonization inclusion was our tradition (1:24)
- Gifting an eagle feather (0:55)
- Relationships continue after death (0:53)
- Transforming as we move through our lives (0:41)
- The journey of life (1:44)
- Learning to laugh (1:20)
- Leaving a legacy (1:05)
- Celebrating life and death as a family (2:13)
- Saying goodbye from above (1:09)
- Finding strength in each other (3:31)
- Sensing the passing of a loved one (1:35)
- Breaking the cycle of trauma (1:46)
- The trauma and grief that our Elders continue to live with (1:06)
- We carry the silence of hidden trauma (1:05)
- The gift of listening and being present (2:15)
- Words of comfort in the face of loss (1:02)
- The body remembers what the heart fears (0:49)
- Learning to let go (1:50)
- How I grieved the near-loss of my husband (0:56)
- Addiction, loss and the need to stand together (2:18)
- Living within an ongoing cycle of grief (1:31)
- My sister was murdered: How Indigenous people are often treated as second-class citizens (1:42)
- Facing my husband’s health crisis (1:21)
- Connecting to the Creator during difficult times (2:42)
- Returning to our spiritual self in times of grief (1:38)
- Inviting Spirit to walk with us (1:54)
- Choosing our path and finding our peace (1:59)
- When laughter brought balance to a tragic situation (3:29)
- Teaching and learning along our life journey (1:40)
- A different way to think about grief (1:41)
- Grief and the loss of our spiritual self (1:03)
- Honouring our grief (0:53)
- Supporting connection and guiding healing (2:01)
- Recognizing the weight of cumulative grief (2:40)
- An invitation to healing (2:28)
- Grieving in the midst of crisis (2:58)
- Creation Stories can serve as guides for grief (2:36)
- The ongoing impacts of colonization (2:44)
- Colonization, grief and resilience (1:48)
- Re-claiming teachings can help us heal (3:00)
- Spirit first: Finding a path through grief (1:24)
- Healing for future generations (2:02)
- Supporting grief through re-claiming our teachings (2:17)
- Tools and teachings for grief and healing (2:32)
- Ceremony and healing after the death of my father (3:02)
- Burning ceremonies connect us to the spirit world (1:57)
- A brushing ceremony helps take away mistakes of those that have died (1:54)
- Completing the brushing ceremony (1:58)
- A hospice ceremony helped me grieve my sister’s death (1:33)
- Wrapping loved ones in a blanket (0:33)
- My first experiences of grief and funerals were overshadowed by the church (3:00)
- How we support grieving families (1:35)
- Our lost generations (1:28)
- Unresolved grief and Indigenous identity (1:10)
- Healing and balance (1:00)
- Swallowing our emotional pain (1:00)
- Climate change and grief (1:10)
- When you carry unresolved grief, you carry heaviness (1:41)
- Trauma, loss and carrying heaviness (2:20)
- Unresolved grief stresses our whole system (1:34)
- Forgiveness and removing negative energy (0:57)
- One can grieve while not carrying the heaviness of grief (1:26)
- It's common to live with the fear of losing someone (1:10)
- You’re never alone (0:36)
- Forgiveness and grief (3:58)
- Racism, grief and loss of identity (2:06)
- Racisim and Canada’s medical system (3:07)
- Ignorance and racism (0:52)
- My sister taught me about death (2:03)
- Healing the Nations: My Hummingbird Song (2:11)
- Rituals and ceremony could be called “no-talk therapy” (0:37)
- Reincarnation and the human spirit (2:23)
- The Brushing Ceremony: Releasing grief, restoring Spirit (3:57)
- From Head to Toe: Letting Go Through the Brushing Ceremony (2:16)
- We had a sustainable way of life for thousands of years (1:58)
- Music is healing (2:37)
- Medicine, music and healing (1:38)
- Living in harmony ensured that we were healthy (2:10)
- Rejuvenating our Spirit (1:55)
- Music can free you from what’s hurting you (1:44)
- Laughter and stories can help with grief (1:20)
- Our teachings can help with trauma (1:01)
- Helping a soul with their journey (1:55)
- Creating burial traditions (1:07)
- Returning to the earth (2:56)
- The sacred threshold: What we feel when a life passes (2:10)
- Honouring the last goodbye: A sacred time (1:50)
- Teaching the Spirit to walk (3:37)
- A year of mourning (1:02)
- When the Spirits call us home (1:54)
- A Family's Final Gift (1:21)
- Respecting the dying, honouring the living (1:39)
- Building a special place in my community (0:43)
- You’re still here: Being present at the end (1:59)
- A home for the final journey (2:27)
- Supporting a family after the death of their baby (1:02)
- Walls we inherit (5:01)
- Braids, red shoes and what we lost (1:24)
- Being there, listening fully (0:46)
- When a baby dies (0:35)
- When grief hits (1:02)
- What eases us, guides us (1:54)
- Grief needs company, not fixing (2:09)
- No longer yours to carry (1:53)
- Releasing grief (1:43)
- Training as a Death Doula (1:41)
- Talking about what we’re afraid of (1:21)
- Learning from the dying (1:02)
- Twice to the edge of life (1:46)
- The white pine tradition (1:00)
- A journey through ceremony (5:08)
- The Song of the Wolf (3:52)
- Healing energy (2:15)
- The Cedar Bath Ceremony (2:19)
- When the Creator calls us home (0:44)
- Our family connections were broken (0:52)
- The death of my auntie (2:18)
- Helping families find peace (2:37)
- Supporting families and those that are dying (1:16)
- What we lost when our children were taken away (1:53)
- Facing tragic deaths with no judgement (0:54)
- Intergenerational trauma (1:23)
- Supporting health care providers to learn our ceremonies (1:27)
- Systemic racism in plain sight (1:07)
- Cultural safety demands more than one course (0:55)
- Holding onto our language (0:50)
- Re-learning ceremony (2:22)
- Grief carried by ceremony (1:53)
- What my father taught me about the seven grandfathers (2:51)
- Laughter (0:49)
- Taking in all that the Creator offers us (1:28)
- A year of honouring and remembering (1:43)
- Sharing stories and laughter after a death (1:07)
- Supporting people who are grieving (0:34)
- Healing a grieving community (2:26)
- Helping my sister find the stars (1:34)
- My son is a beautiful soul who has buried his grief (2:03)
- The weight of trauma and racism (1:06)
- It took me a long time to find my voice (1:30)
- My mother died during Covid (1:25)
- Grief shows itself in many ways (0:53)
- Grieving so much loss in our communities (0:53)
- Bringing trauma care to those that need it the most (1:42)
- When hospitals discriminate (1:18)
- A gift that brought my mom back to me (1:02)
- Opening up to my cultural background and the power of ceremony (2:30)
- Humour (0:43)
- The Leaving Song (1:23)
- Understanding death through ceremony (1:26)
- Much of our grief is about fear (1:35)
- My belief is that grief is about fear (1:29)
- Grieving a death or serious illness can affect us in different ways (2:27)
- My daughter’s death (1:54)
- Before birth, we chose: Reflections on suicide, overdose, and sacred purpose (1:54)
- Grief is life (0:46)
- Balance as ceremony: Feeding the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual (2:30)
- Embracing grief (1:09)
- My near-dying experience removed my fear of death (2:16)
- We each have our own practices (0:51)
- A ceremony for encouraging a baby’s Spirit to stay in this world (1:22)
- The Seven Stones Ceremony (2:07)
- The cycle of life and the teachings of ceremony (1:57)
- I am still connected with my ancestors through ceremony (1:03)
- Water and ceremony (0:54)
- The language I grew up with (1:03)
- During ceremony my Spirit leaves my body (1:51)
- My Spirit name and ceremonies that were gifted to me (1:39)
- Teachings from the pipe ceremony and our connection to the aging tree (4:07)
- The difference between spirituality and religions (0:34)
- Seven Sacred Teachings (2:12)
- The importance of laughter (1:15)
- Reclaiming our end-of-life ceremonies (2:11)
- Preparing to go back home (1:20)
- Ancestor’s feast (1:09)
- When my Elder went to the Spirit world (2:20)
- When my grandmother died (0:52)
- Photos, stories, presence (1:27)
- Food, Presence, and Compassion: The Traditional Tools of Care (1:49)
- Supporting without judgement (1:21)
- Small actions can be big actions (0:45)
- Acknowledging that we carry grief and trauma (2:45)
- The grief that comes with not feeling like you belong (1:11)
- Sharing circles and the importance of story (2:14)
- Talking about our loved ones who have died (1:08)
- Speaking grief aloud (1:32)
- Support and sharing (1:44)
- Don’t judge (1:18)
- Crying is good (1:35)
- Allowing for emotion (1:50)
- It can be hard to ask for help (1:07)
- Acknowledging different kinds of losses (1:59)
- Healing happens when we stop holding everything inside (1:33)
- Training and change need to be ongoing (2:04)
- Supporting the next generation of Indigenous Healers (0:40)
- Bringing our ceremony, culture and language back into my life (1:06)
- Ceremonial helpers (1:17)
- Sacred water walks (1:14)
- Always remember the water (3:07)
- Learning my language: Moving from a place of shame to a place of beauty (3:18)
- Holding our stories and our truths (0:56)
- Culture helped me with my own grief (1:12)
- It’s OK to cry: Returning to our teachings (1:02)
- The Seven Grandfather Teachings (1:58)
- Living our truths (1:06)
- Le poids du deuil cumulatif (2:42)
- La réappropriation des enseignements peut contribuer à notre guérison (3:01)
- Une invitation à amorcer la guérison (2:29)
- Activité de guérison: La cérémonie du brossage (1:55)
- Activité de guérison: La libération émotionelle (1:44)
- Indigenous Voices Exploring our loss (20:54)
- Voix Autochtones: Explorer Nos Pertes (21:08)
- Indigenous Voices: Reclaiming our ceremonies for grieving (19:22)
- Voix Autochtones: Se réapproprier nos rituels de deuil (19:31)
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