The Medicine Wheel Café is not just a place to sit and have a coffee. It’s a community support program where everyone is welcome.
Imani Miller, who started her work life as a nurse, opened the café last July at 1231 17th Ave.
At that point she had been working at School District 57 for more than eight years as a member of the Elders Indigenous Council within the Indigenous education program. Since she’s been on call for the last two years she’s having even more fun than before, visiting all the schools and hanging out with the students.
“So this café is kind of my retirement – I’m 75 years old,” Miller said. “I’m taking my time with it because I’m having so much fun with it."
Miller smiled as she admitted she considers the Medicine Wheel Café her clubhouse.
“So my friends and I and their friends meet up and do all kinds of things,” she said.
“We’ve got a core group and we meet to strategize about the future of the café. What we are and what we hope to be is a community outreach. So we work with all kinds of resources. People come in and we can help them access resources.”
There’s even a space for Miller to do her energy work and massage therapy.
“It’s multi-purpose,” Miller added.
She’s been practicing her medicine wheel principles for most of her life and her work in Prince George reflects that.
“It started at the Native Friendship Centre where I was an addictions counsellor and I had a wellness group,” Miller said. “And I thought, why not bring some of the medicine that I was taught by my father's side of the family? He’s a Chickamauga Cherokee so I kind of brought that into it and also because the Cherokee have ties with the ancient Mexican beliefs I bring in the Toltec four agreements and that was a big part of it at first.”
The four agreements are be impeccable with your word, don't take anything personally, don't make assumptions, always do your best.
In the meantime, Miller was also a co-facilitator of the John Howard Society’s anger management program.
“So I started bringing some of the things over there like the four agreements and the medicine wheel for balance and it really worked for some people,” Miller said.
Miller continued to meet with groups and finally decided that meeting outside might be best.
“Mostly we met by the river and we build medicine wheels down there and taught people how to use them to heal,” Miller said. “We also showed people how to drum at the river.”
Working with the medicine wheel and offering her knowledge has been a lifelong dream of Miller’s and she’s grateful for the opportunity to continue her work.
“People have the power to heal themselves,” Miller said. “We can’t heal anybody so we teach them how to heal themselves – we give them the tools they need – but that word is so overused – we show them the path of self-reliance and the importance of believing in yourself. That is more powerful than saying ‘hey, let me give you a tool’ because I have met people that are so down that you could give them every tool in the toolbox and they couldn’t even lift them up, let alone make use of them. So we help people find their strength.”
Miller continues to use what she learned from her father and her grandparents.
Her world opened up when she started to travel the world at 60 years old.
She lived in Australia for a while and Indonesia, France and England.
“So I gathered knowledge as I went and then when I came here and saw this little place – the Medicine Wheel Café location – I said I wanted this little place to be like a lighthouse,” Miller said.
“When you build a medicine wheel it brings everyone together in one place. You’ve built a sacred space. I want light to come from it. I want people to come here and feel comfortable and I don't care who they are. We just have to approach everyone with love. When you come together it doesn’t matter what you’re coming for, whether it’s to pray, grow or heal, you get your balance. Even if they’ve never done it before it feels familiar and that’s the true power of the medicine wheel.”
