The Braiding Bridge Project
Where systems and spirit meet. Reconnecting what was never meant to be divided.
The Call
I was feeling it long before I knew what was happening.
I was dreaming, but had no understanding that these dreams were communicating something important.
I had been invited into many ceremonies, sweat lodges, and trainings, all as part of my job, not realizing the slow and steady repairing that was happening to my identity and to my spirit.
To be honest, I was doing my best to ignore the dissonance that was growing in my soul. I thought I was doing a fairly good job of it until I received this email from an Elder who lived three thousand kilometers away:
“Raelene, I need to speak to you. [Elder] and I need to go to Scotland to do ceremony for the land over there. Are you planning to go sometime soon?”
After I received that email, everything changed. Everything.
This is where the seed of The Braiding Bridge Project began.
The Undoing
Everywhere I look, people are feeling unsettled, tired, and disconnected.
They’re taking breaks, reevaluating, burning out, and calling it self-care.
But underneath that, something deeper is breaking open.
In the past, we would take a week off, pull ourselves together, and go back to the same way of living.
This time, it’s different. It’s not burnout.
It’s your spirit trying to get your attention.
We’ve been taught that logic and spirit are opposites, that being grounded means being practical, not present.
In that teaching, we lost the strand that feeds us. The strand that connects us to meaning, to land, and to each other.
And then we wonder why we are exhausted, anxious, and lonely, even when life looks successful.
The Braiding Bridge Project begins from a simple knowing.
We have been taught to separate our mind, body, emotion, and spirit.
When the spirit strand is missing, the braid begins to fray.
We become disconnected from ourselves, from each other, and from the land that holds us.
Spirit is not a hobby. It is Medicine.
Rebraiding is not about becoming spiritual. It is about remembering that spirit is part of being human. This project is about remembering what wholeness feels like and learning how to live from that place again.
What The Project Is
The Braided Bridge Project is a living space for reflection and reconnection guided by conversation, community, and courage.
It’s where we rebraid what’s been divided and remember how to move as one being again.
Our nervous systems remember what our minds have forgotten. The loss of language, land, and kinship shows up as anxiety, perfectionism, or restlessness.
The braid represents wholeness. Each strand matters. Each holds strength. When one is ignored, we feel it. The structure weakens. Life feels hollow.
The bridge is the path we build as we braid. It’s how we move ethically and consciously from a colonized way of thinking toward a harmonized way of being. It’s how we move from untethered to connected to land, to community, and to the wisdom woven through all living things.
This work is not about self-improvement. It’s about restoration and remembering that we belong and learning to live from that place again.
About Raelene
I created The Braiding Bridge Project because I have lived the tension it speaks to.
I am an Indigenous woman who grew up disconnected from her culture. My mother was adopted out of her family in 1951 and passed away without reconnecting to who she was. For years, I believed success and service would fill what was missing inside me. I built a career, earned a Master’s in Leadership, and founded Origin Leadership Consulting, where I work with organizations and Nations to reimagine education, governance, and systems in ways that honour relationship and Indigenous knowledge.
But the work we do in the world can only be as whole as the work we do within ourselves.
Through years of sitting with Elders, participating in ceremony, and learning from dreams and spirit, I have come to understand that integrity begins with how we listen and how we bring back together what has been divided. I’ve learned that our ancestors, dreams and blood memory hold knowledge we have not been taught to notice or honour.
I do not hold Indigenous knowledge or teachings. I share what I have learned through ceremony, from Elders, and through my own ongoing reconnection as a Métis woman who was not raised in her culture.
The Braiding Bridge Project is where I bring this learning forward. It is where intellect and spirit meet, where community and personal practice align, and where my work in the world reflects the same balance I strive to live.
Who This Work Is For
This work is for people who feel like they’re standing at a threshold.
The old ways of working, relating, and proving themselves don’t fit anymore, but what comes next isn’t clear yet.
They’re questioning what success means, craving something more honest, and feeling the pull to live and lead in ways that feel human again.
Those who find their way here come from different cultures and countries, but share one thing in common: they are ready to live and lead with greater integrity, connection, and awareness.
This work may call you if…
You have not grown up in Indigenous or land-based teachings, but feel a longing to understand how spirit connects to daily life.
You have built a good life, but something still feels unsettled or disconnected.
You are deeply thoughtful but tired of overthinking and still not feeling at peace.
You want to live in a way that feels honest, grounded, and whole.
You feel caught between worlds and the one that shaped you, and the one your spirit keeps guiding you toward.
You sense the world is changing, and you want to meet that change as your full self.
You want to explore your own Indigeneity, either from those here on Turtle Island or if your ancestral lineage is elsewhere in the world.
You feel ‘placeless’ but don’t know why. Something simply is ‘off’.
The Braiding Bridge Project is for anyone who knows they cannot go back to the old ways of surviving and is ready to remember what it means to live fully alive.
How We Begin
Circle Gatherings
We were never meant to live divided from land, from one another, from spirit. These 90-minute circles are a place to remember what was broken, to speak honestly about the cost of disconnection, and to begin rebraiding how we think, feel, and live. We talk about spirit, leadership, land, and the cost of forgetting who we are.
Guided Conversations
For those who are ready to explore more deeply.
These are not therapy or coaching sessions. They are conversations where we listen to what your spirit is trying to say and begin to rebraid what has been separated. Together, we look at what feels unsteady, what is asking to shift, and what wants to return.
This is a quiet, personal space for reflection, realignment, and remembering what wholeness feels like.
People often come when:
• The old ways of working or living no longer feel right
• Success no longer feels fulfilling
• They sense something deeper is calling for their attention
• They want to reconnect with purpose, integrity, or ancestral knowing
Disconnection was not your fault.
You were born into systems that taught separation. But staying disconnected is a choice. Courageous people are needed now. People who are willing to become whole again and braid together the parts of themselves that were never meant to be divided.