As psychedelic therapies gain renewed attention in Canadian research, the Naut sa mawt Collaborative for Psychedelic Research seeks to foster a collaborative environment that integrates Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to advance inclusive psychedelic programming, education, and research.
By engaging in a development process with a diversity of stakeholders from across Canada, we aimed to inspire a living system with a shared intention to promote awareness, understanding, and a culturally responsive approach to psychedelic-assisted therapies for the benefit of all.
The initiative began in living room gatherings between 2015-2018. In 2018, a grant was received by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research to support a collaborative multidisciplinary team to develop an evidence-informed resilience program, which was later named Roots to Thrive.
Following enormously positive results from the Roots to Thrive program, between 2019 and 2021, additional grants were received enabling the inclusion of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PaT) for those deemed 'treatment resistant' by the healthcare system. The service delivery effort was couched in a quality improvement framework, jointly overseen by Vancouver Island University and Island Health.
Based on the ongoing demand for PaT guidelines, standards, and accredited education, Vancouver Island University's Psychedelic-assisted Therapy Graduate Certificate program was launched in 2022 - with a focus on a culturally inclusive approach - honoring the role of traditional methodologies within a western system.
Finally, to mitigate the risk of limiting PaT in Canada to the dominant western approaches, and in recognition of the widespread lack of entheogenic understanding, a community-informed framework and collaborative 'third space' was formed. The collaborative was gifted the name 'Nawt sa Mawt' by Snuneymuxw Elder Geraldine Manson. The collaborative was first approved and held as an Institute within Vancouver Island University in 2023. In 2024, in an effort to promote a more decolonized approach, the stewardship of the collaborative was transferred to an Indigenous-led non-profit call the Salish Sea Entheogenic Society.
The Naut sa Mawt Collaborative represents a three prong approach to advance the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy in Canada, including service delivery, education, and ongoing innovation through research and quality improvement.