b'COVER STORYMessage from the EXECUTIVE DIRECTORART AS ASOURCE OF HEALINGCora McGuire-CyretteI t is with great honour that ONWA presents to you our 7th issue of our bi-annual She Is Wise magazine.This issue comes to you on the winter solstice; these stories are gifted to you in hopes that Executive Director, ONWA you will read and enjoy them over the long winter months. The stories share so much about how these artists work to celebrate their skills in ways that may seem impossible. Their over-arching message is: if I can, so can you.Stories are the heart of who we are, and for people like Jamie Black and Jesse Wente, it needs to be us speaking to our experiences and sharing our stories. We need to be the leaders in what stories we tell about us and for us. Sometimes, our stories are told through painting, and again it is our experiences that tell the story. It is through art and our expression of art that Indigenous women such as Maxine Noel can work toward saving the world, and in doing so, we save ourselves. The musicians who sing to us and share their experiences, their lives and their solutions, do so to help others, always carrying a message of resiliency and hope. Their music reflects our own journeys and can help carry us through hard times. It helps to know others have made it through a similar experience. Like our ancestors who once bent trees to show others the way, this is what the artists are doing for all of us today. It is the artists and the keepers of art that are making spacesafe spaces for art to be shown, purchased, worn and shared. These women know the importance of art taking up the space it needs so that it can continue to help and heal those that make it, see it, wear it and celebrate it. It is in this space that we lift others up so that they can create and be a part of something outside of their own spaces. As Indigenous women, artwork can be the healing we need, but it can also be the work that supports our families and communities. Indigenous women create art that gives and serves a broader purpose; it connects us to ourselves and others, to the land and water that is so much a part of our identity. It is from these relationships with the natural world that we derive our intel-lectual property something so important that we can never ever give up. Art is the rattle that moves us and shakes us. It is the messenger, and the message to always be who we are as Indigenous women.Ontario Native Womens Association11'