Featuring Dan Elliott from Stz'uminus First Nation
Dan Elliott is a Consultant in Truth & Reconciliation, cultural knowledge keeper, mental health advocate, and author, born into the Stz'uminus People on Vancouver Island. Dan has brought culture to many seeking it -- first in the Nanaimo public school system, and then to the Indigenous inmates of Nanaimo Correctional Centre. Now Dan supports his community through truth and reconciliation work and mental health advocacy, helping others find their healing path. Dan actively and frequently facilitates smudges, sweat lodges, and traditional cooking classes. He is an incredible artist and author, and recently finished a collection entitled "The Winds of Change," which is rooted in the path towards reconciliation.
Event Details
🗓 Date: Aug 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM PDT
📍 Location: Online Webinar
Workshop Description
Sit with Culturally Committed Mentor Dan Elliott of Stz'uminus as he walks you through his collection, Winds of Change — watercolours and oil paintings that move from pre-contact scenes, through the impacts of colonization, toward his own vision of what reconciliation can look like. Dan has been with Culturally Committed since the very beginning. He's a counsellor, a sweat lodge keeper, and a healer, and he brings all of that into his art — describing his approach as coming not just as an artist, but as a counsellor, a healer, and a medicine man. He started painting young, encouraged by his mother, and has carried it alongside a lifetime of other work: years as a commercial fisherman, work with Indigenous youth, and decades of cultural healing work with his own community. Winds of Change asks something hard of the people who engage with it: to confront the history and impact of residential schools directly, without looking away. Dan calls his work a way of helping people forge a new relationship — and in this session, he'll walk you through the collection piece by piece, sharing the story and the teaching behind each one.