Ten years ago, the Community-Activated Medicine™ (CAM™) & Red Sands Event began as Milwaukee’s first collective grief and healing gathering created to honor Indigenous survivors, families, and communities impacted by Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) and relational violence.
Founded by Dr. h.c. Lea S. Denny, Founder & CEO of HIR Wellness Institute, alongside community members, the gathering was created from a simple truth: Our grief was never meant to be carried alone.
As a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing mental health care for Indigenous and underserved survivors of violence, HIR Wellness Institute has carried this gathering forward as a place where culture, story, ceremony, relationship, and community care become pathways toward healing.
For ten years, relatives have gathered to honor those who are missing, remember those whose lives were taken, stand beside survivors and families, and strengthen our collective commitment to justice and healing.
Through Indigenous teachings, ceremony, storytelling, art, movement, and body-based healing practices, we make room for grief to move, and for connection, strength, hope, and action to grow.
Speakers, Elders, helpers, healers, youth, survivors, advocates, and mental health professionals will offer teachings, stories, messages, and care throughout the gathering.
Together, we pour red sand.
We remember.
We witness.
We tell our stories.
We honor.
We heal.
And we carry this work forward together.
Gather With Us for:
- Indigenous speakers, teachings, and stories
- Youth voices
- Community healers and helpers
- Fire, culture, and ceremony
- The CAM™ Village of Care
- Collective Grief Vigil
- Art, reflection, and community healing activities
- Mental health, wellness, and somatic support from the HIR Wellness Institute’s licensed mental health professionals, advocates, community healers, and advanced clinical interns
- Opportunities for remembrance, connection, justice, and collective action
Community Grief Vigil
If you have lost a loved one to MMIWR or relational violence, we invite you to bring a photo or meaningful item to honor their memory at our community grief vigil.
Please bring copies of photographs or remember take your item home after the event, as we cannot guarantee its return to you.
10th Annual Community-Activated Medicine™ & Red Sands Event
Date:
November 14, 2026
Time:
1:00-5:00 PM CST
Location:
UW-Milwaukee Student Union
Wisconsin Room
2200 E Kenwood Blvd
Milwaukee, WI 53211
Free and open to the community. Registration is required.
Come as you are. Come to remember. Come to receive care. Come to stand with families, survivors, and community.
Our stories matter. Our relatives matter. Our healing matters.
We carry this together.
Every Dollar Donated Supports a Survivor’s Healing Journey 
Every donation and sponsorship to the 10th Annual CAM & Red Sands Healing Event directly supports no-cost trauma recovery and healing focused mental health care, victim advocacy, and healing services for women, children, families, and community members impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault.
At HIR Wellness Institute, we believe it should not cost someone to heal.
Your gift helps us meet survivors with dignity, safety, culture, and care wherever they are in their healing journey.
$5 can help provide culturally specific prayer bundles, traditional plants, teas, or other healing resources.
$50 can help provide art therapy and therapeutic supplies for a survivor or child.
$150 can help provide a counseling, wellness, or healing service at no cost to the survivor.
$500 can help a family of three or four escaping domestic violence access approximately two nights of safe temporary lodging, essential clothing and care items, and meals while victim advocates and social workers help them transition toward safer housing and ongoing support.
Every gift matters.
Every dollar can become a safe place to sleep, a counseling session, a meal, a care bag, a healing practice, or the reminder that someone does not have to walk through violence alone.
When you give, you are not simply supporting an event. You are helping create safety, access, dignity, and healing for survivors of violence.
Every little bit helps. Every act of care carries someone forward. We carry this work together.
In Community,
The HIR Wellness Institute team
Must be 18 or older to register. Minors in attendance with registered adults must remain under supervision and custodial care of parent/guardian at all times.
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