The Ojibway and Cree Cultural Centre is hosting a charity event to connect youth and elders of the community.
The centre has partnered with the 13 Avenue Barber Shop to provide $5 hair trimmings. The money raised will be given to the Timmins Native Friendship Centre for gas as it provides transportation services to elders.
The event will be held at the centre at 150 Brousseau Ave. It will run from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
“It’s not Indigenous peoples only, it’s open to everyone,” said the centre’s executive director Tristan Lebrun.
The event will also address the cutting of long hair and its importance in Indigenous culture.
Forced hair cutting in residential schools was one way to assimilate Indigenous children and strip them of their identity.
Lebrun said he wears long hair to honour his grandmother, aunts and uncles who survived the residential school system. On the days he braids his hair, he strives to remember the teachings of humility and keep in mind that the braid keeps him down to the earth.
“It remembers me I’m no better than anything that walks on Mother Earth. Those are the teachings I was given when I tie my hair,” he said.
Lebrun said he, as well as his brother and mother, go to have their hair done at 13 Avenue Barber Shop. The shop's owner Sabryna Larr has healing energy when she cuts people’s hair, he said.
“I just want Sabryna to bring that energy to the community. I know it’s in her. Those are the kind of people you want in your life,” he said. “If they can help her with her business, then great. At the same time, her helping us is very near and dear to my heart because everyone should get to feel like this once in a while, pampered and beautified.”
Larr said barbering is an art to her, and she’s passionate about it.
“I love the fact I get to serve the community. Without the community, I wouldn’t have this passion,” she said. “I believe when you look good, you also feel good and you get to bring that to the world. It’s a very powerful feeling of feeling good. I’m happy I get to do that with my art.”
To book an appointment, call 705-267-7911 or email [email protected].
