Why Beyond Justice as Trauma 2027?
For three Justice as Trauma summits, we did the work of naming harm: exposing its patterns, examining its consequences, and confronting the systems that perpetuate it, particularly for Indigenous, racialized, and other marginalized communities.
We said we were done. There would be no more summits.
But knowing what we know, we couldn’t simply walk away. We kept returning to the same question: Now what? What do we do with the truth we’ve uncovered? What does it demand of us? And what might become possible if we moved beyond naming harm toward imagining and creating something different?
Beyond Trauma, Toward Transformation
We are moving beyond the identification of harm toward the possibilities of repair, revolutionary love, liberation, and healing. Exploring what these principles require of us, and how they can be embodied in our workplace cultures, professional practices, policies, institutions, and relationships.
Part of a Larger Movement
This work does not exist in isolation. It is connected to broader movements for Indigenous liberation, racial justice, truth and reconciliation, equity, and the dismantling of systemic racism. It recognizes the intersections of identity, power, history, and lived experience, and the ways these shape our relationships with one another and the systems we inhabit.
Doing the Work Together
This gathering is designed for more than listening and learning. Participants will be invited to explore, experiment, create, and practise together. Through facilitated inquiry and experiential activities, we will bring ideas into experience, explore different possibilities, and consider what meaningful change might look like in our relationships, workplaces, and communities. This work will happen both in Vancouver and across the communities participating around the world.
Healing
Healing justice is collective care. Trauma that communities carry is tended by communities, in ways rooted in place and ancestral knowledge, with no single model that fits everyone.
Drawing on the work of Cara Page and the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective
Revolutionary love
A deliberate choice to labour for others, for our opponents and for ourselves. It reaches people society treats as strangers or threats, and it makes room for grief, anger and joy.
Informed by the work of Valarie Kaur, See No Stranger
Relational repair
Restoring balance. When harm steps over the laws that guide how we live together, repair mends the relationship and the whole person: spirit, body, mind and emotions. It returns us to the teachings, laws and ways of governing that hold us in good relation.
Informed by the work of Janice Makokis (Saddle Lake Cree Nation), Restorying the Balance, on Cree law
Liberation
Freedom that is lived, not granted. It is rooted in land and in reciprocal relationships, it refuses the hierarchies colonialism built, and it makes new ways of living together instead of asking for a place inside the systems that caused harm. No one is liberated alone. We free ourselves in communion with one another.
Drawing on the work of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg), Glen Coulthard (Yellowknives Dene) and Paulo Freire
Community as medicine
Community is more than a place where we gather. It can itself be a source of restoration. Through belonging, cultural connection, shared strength, reciprocity, and mutual care, we find ways of carrying what would otherwise be too much to carry alone.
Informed by the work of Amy Lamb, “Community is medicine: First-ever gathering of Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada,” Canadian Pharmacists Journal (2024)
Voices who have gathered with us
Three days of vision, collective inquiry, and experiential practice
Downtown Vancouver, April 2027.
Three visionary keynotes
Three visionary voices. One keynote to open each day and introduce the questions and possibilities we’ll explore together.
Five facilitated experiences
Five rooms, each led by an experienced facilitator who will guide participants through collective inquiry and experiential practice.
Questions to carry
Choose a room based on the question you want to explore. For example: How do we bring revolutionary love into a fractured or adversarial workplace, or into our communities?
What a day can hold
The program is still taking shape.
Each day, you’ll choose one of five facilitated experiences. The same facilitator will guide your group through both the morning inquiry and afternoon practice. You’re welcome to choose a different room each day, allowing you to experience three of the five offerings over the course of the gathering.
Main-stage keynotes and closing plenaries will be livestreamed to participating host circles around the world.
Beyond Vancouver. Across Communities. Together.
A host circle brings together people from a community, workplace, school, or organization to watch the livestream collectively, facilitate some of the same experiences we create in the breakout sessions in Vancouver, and hold their own conversations alongside the gathering.
Communities, not individuals
There is no individual livestream ticket.
Each circle makes it their own
Every circle decides who joins and what its community pays to attend.
More people can participate
When a community hosts a circle, people who cannot travel to Vancouver can gather together where they live and take part alongside us.
Care, choice, and support
As with previous summits, a dedicated healing and support room will be part of the gathering, hosted by an Indigenous woman who brings her healing knowledge and spiritual gifts. Participants will have the opportunity to make their own protection bags using the four medicines.
Help us create the experience
Three keynotes, three visionaries
We are looking for visionary thinkers who can see what justice becomes when it begins with love and human dignity. To nominate someone, or to put yourself forward, write to us.
Closes December 2, 2026.
Bring an experience to the gathering
We are looking for experienced facilitators to join us for all three days of the gathering. Each day, facilitators will guide participants through a morning of collective inquiry and an afternoon of experiential practice, exploring themes such as healing, revolutionary love, relational repair, liberation, and community as medicine.
We’re looking for people who can hold complex conversations, engage diverse groups, and create meaningful experiences that invite people to do more than talk. Tell us about your facilitation approach, the practices you bring, and your experience designing participatory learning experiences.
Closes December 2, 2026.
Host a circle
We are building a global network of circle hosts. Individuals, organizations, workplaces, schools, nonprofits, and community groups can bring people together locally to participate in Beyond Justice as Trauma 2027.
A circle host:
- Gathers their community in one location to participate in the livestream.
- Brings their group together for the livestreamed keynotes and closing plenaries, at times that work in their time zone.
- Facilitates local conversations and experiential activities alongside the facilitated experiences taking place in Vancouver.
- Pays a hosting fee that helps cover livestream and audiovisual costs.
- Sets their own approach to participation, including ticketing, pricing, or a sliding scale.
Stand with us
Previous Justice as Trauma gatherings have been largely self-funded by founder Myrna McCallum. For 2027, we are building a broader funding model through institutional partnerships, corporate sponsorships, and individual contributions. No single sponsor is expected to carry the cost of the gathering.
Our approach is grounded in reciprocity: your contribution helps make the gathering possible, while your staff, members, and teams have opportunities to participate, learn, and engage alongside the communities involved.
- Supports the gathering as a whole
- Listed in the program
- Post-event impact summary
- Supports the gathering as a whole
- Listed in the program and online
- Post-event impact summary
- Featured acknowledgement
- Support for presenters and facilitators
- 2 in-person registrations
- A table at the gathering, or a hosted lunch
- Selected recordings for staff learning
- Post-event impact summary
- Everything in Reciprocity
- Featured, with a spoken acknowledgement
- 4 in-person registrations
- Digital access and host circle support
- Customized partnership opportunities, by conversation
Every contribution helps make participation possible, for the people in the room in Vancouver and the communities gathering around the world.
Where sponsorship goes
- Sponsored registrations for people who could not otherwise attend.
- Keynote speaker and facilitator fees, travel, and accommodation.
- Venue, catering, and audiovisual production in downtown Vancouver.
- Global livestream infrastructure and host circle participation.
- The healing and support room.
- Documentation and recording of selected main-stage programming so the learning can reach beyond the gathering.
Partnerships and contributions
Organizations can sponsor at the levels outlined above or connect with us to explore a customized partnership. Individual contributions are also welcome. We recognize that meaningful support can take different forms and amounts, and we are open to conversations about how you would like to contribute.
View sponsorship opportunitiesOpens the sponsorship package as a PDF. To talk it through, write to admin@myrnamccallum.co.
Join the presale waitlist
Tickets are not on sale yet. Join the waitlist and we will write to you first when presale opens.
Circle hosts register their communities with us directly.
Questions we are asked
Is the program finalized?
Not yet. Dates, venue, keynote speakers and facilitators are still being confirmed. The calls for keynote speakers and facilitators both close December 2, 2026. We will share the program as it comes together.
Who should attend?
Anyone who wants to practise healing, revolutionary love, relational repair and liberation in their communities, workplaces and professions. Past summits brought together physicians, nurses, teachers, psychologists, social workers, lawyers and judges alongside Indigenous community members from many places.
Which breakout rooms can I attend?
There will be five facilitated experiences, each exploring a different question or area of practice. Details about the facilitators and the focus of each experience will be announced as the program takes shape. Each day, you’ll choose one of the five rooms, with the opportunity to select a different experience each day. You’ll participate in three of the five experiences over the course of the gathering.
What is the difference between attending in person and participating through a host circle?
In person, we gather in downtown Vancouver. A host circle is a community, workplace, school or organization that gathers in its own room, joins the livestream together and facilitates some of the same experiences we create in the breakout sessions in Vancouver.
Can an individual participate in the livestream?
No. The livestream is for communities, not individuals, so there is no individual livestream ticket. If you would like to take part from where you are, invite your workplace, school or community to become a host circle, or write to us.
What is expected of a circle host?
A host gathers its community in one room, joins the livestream together and takes responsibility for facilitating some of the same experiences we create in the breakout sessions in Vancouver. Hosts pay a hosting fee that helps cover livestream costs. The amount is still being confirmed. Each host sets its own approach to participation, including ticketing, pricing, or a sliding scale. Write to us and we will talk it through.
How are keynote speakers and facilitators selected?
We are looking for three visionary keynote voices, and nominations are welcome. For facilitators, we favour rooms that bring an experience people share together, and we look for people who can commit to all three days, leading collective inquiry in the morning and experiential practice in the afternoon. We will confirm selections once each call closes.
Will the sessions be recorded?
We plan to record the gathering professionally so the learning can reach people who could not attend. What is shared, and with whom, is still being decided, and we will confirm it before the gathering.
How can organizations sponsor the gathering?
Sponsorship begins at $5,000, with levels at $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000 or more. Each level lists its benefits above. A different amount or focus is welcome. The full sponsorship package is available as a PDF in the section above, and you can write to us with any questions.
Myrna McCallum
Myrna McCallum is a Cree and Métis lawyer, trauma educator and speaker. Called to the BC bar in 2007, she has worked as a defence lawyer, a prosecutor and an adjudicator. She founded Justice as Trauma in 2023 and has hosted all three summits, intentionally centring Indigenous, Black, racialized and queer voices.