There is a word rising on the tongues of our grandmothers, echoing through the bones of the land:
 

Rematriation.

 

It is not a trend. It is not a project.
It is a prayer.
A calling.
A return to the sacred.

Where colonization sought to sever us from our lands, our languages, and the leadership of our matriarchs, rematriation is the act of remembering that we were never meant to be removed. It is the weaving back of threads that were violently cut—the songs silenced, the children stolen, the ceremonies buried but never forgotten.

Rematriation is not just about returning land to Indigenous Peoples.
It is about returning the sacred relationship to land.
It is the restoration of balance. Of breath. Of belonging.

At Women of First Light, rematriation is the lifeblood of our work.
It is the heartbeat beneath every gathering, every ceremony, every seed we plant.
We are rematriating not only land, but memory. Not only buildings, but belief.
We are restoring a space—once known as the Tatamagouche Centre—to its rightful role as a Wabanaki lodge of healing, ceremony, and Indigenous-led renewal. A place where Elders speak and youth listen. Where the next seven generations are held with intention. Where the fire burns not just for warmth, but for remembrance.

We are dreaming a longhouse into being—built not only from timber and earth, but from prophecy, prayer, and the tears of those who carried the vision when no one else could see it.

To rematriate is to refuse erasure.
To stand in the ashes of what was taken and say: We are still here. And we are not done yet.

It is the sacred work of returning to what cannot be owned, only honored.
To what cannot be bought, only remembered.

And it begins with women.
With the ones who carry life in their bodies, stories in their blood, and futures in their hands.

We are not asking for power.
We are restoring responsibility.
We are walking with the ancestors at our backs, and the children of tomorrow in our arms.

This is rematriation.

And we invite you to walk with us.