Remember the Dead: Event Recap

The Kutenai Art Therapy Institute (KATI) participated in the Remember the Dead ceremony held at the Nelson Cemetery on November 2, 2025. The ceremony was based on five gates of grief outlined in Francis Weller’s book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow (a second-year textbook). KATI hosted the fourth gate: What we expected and did not receive through an interactive art installation called Weaving our Dreams. People were invited to choose a strip of fabric, write their grief on the back of the fabric, and then weave the fabric into a giant loom created on a majestic Douglas fir tree. The ancient tree held the collective sorrow of the people. The communal creation of weaving enhanced the universality of this type of grief and increased connection and holding. This was an incredibly impactful installation for many participants. Their internal sorrows were outwardly expressed into a weaving of beauty.