Healing through grief: Supporting those journeying back to the Spirit World – Anishinabek News
December 3, 2025
THUNDER BAY — Red Rock Indian Band’s Holly Prince spoke about supporting people journeying back to the Spirit World during Hospice Northwest’s Healing through Grief Conference, held Nov. 18 at the Superior Inn in Thunder Bay. Prince, lead of the Indigenous People’s Health and Aging Division at the Centre for Education and Research on Aging and Health at Lakehead University, was one of the panellists on the Seeing Grief Through Different Lenses panel at the conference.
“We work with Indigenous peoples right across Canada to respond to their needs in the areas of research as well as education, but I have a particular interest and focus on supporting people who are journeying back to Spirit World, and I would say for myself that is both a deeply personal experience, as well as it’s become my professional passion,” Prince says, noting that she has seen a real disconnect for Indigenous peoples on what that journey back to Spirit World looked like. “So, I began working in this space of end of life and palliative care to figure out how I could support that journey, and in the 20 years that I’ve been working in the field of palliative care I’ve had the opportunity and great privilege of working with many people across this country that we now call Canada, including caring for my own mother in my own home in the City of Thunder Bay as she journeyed at end of life.”
