About SPIRIT
Supporting Play and Intergenerational Relationships with Indigenous Traditions (SPIRIT) is a global collective of Indigenous groups in Australia, Canada, the United States and Aotearoa me te Waipounamu (New Zealand). Together, we are creating the conditions for Indigenous communities and families to flourish through play, intergenerational learning, and reclamation of cultural identity.
"We envision a future in which all children are born into a world that knows and embraces them."
The global SPIRIT collective strives to reclaim our languages, philosophies, and ways of being to restore intergenerational wellbeing for Indigenous Peoples and our planet. We envision a future in which all children are born into a world that knows and embraces them. A world where they thrive in spaces that honor their joy, their potential, and their brilliance; grounded in identity, language, land and ancestral knowing. A world in which caregivers are supported to nurture their children in safe, beautiful communities. The health of the planet will benefit from the success of this movement.
Project Background
In December 2022, Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health was named a top international winner of the LEGO Foundation Build a World of Play Challenge, a global initiative to fund bold, innovative, and impactful solutions focused on early childhood. The goal of our project, Reclaiming Indigenous Children’s Futures through Home-Visiting and Intergenerational Playspaces, was to promote Indigenous play, expand our Family Spirit early childhood home visiting program, and create Indigenous-designed community playspaces in 20 new Indigenous sites across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa (New Zealand).
To take this work around the globe, a partnership was formed with three Indigenous-led organizations, including: the First Nations Health Authority in Canada; Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare (The Eru Pōmare Māori Health) at University of Otago in Aotearoa (New Zealand); and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures at the University of Queensland in Australia. Together, we seek bold solutions to reclaim strong families and strong autonomous Indigenous communities.
Our Theory of Change
We believe lasting transformation grows like a seed — from the soil of community, nourished by land, culture, and connection.
Play is Our Medicine
Indigenous play is medicine – healing and strengthening body, mind, spirit, family, community and nature.
Play fosters connection, identity, and balance.
Play nurtures the present and prepares us for the future, moving across generations to strengthen relationships, build resilience, and shape systems that protect and uplift Indigenous children, families and communities.
Play enables us to cultivate homes, communities, and movements that sustain wellbeing, ensuring all children and the caregivers and communities that love them inherit a world of safety and joy.
Through play we restore, reclaim, and reweave a world of belonging for our children. We prepare systems to uplift their brilliance.
SPIRIT Gathering Mparntwe | Alice Springs 2024