Spring 2017: Decolonizing Dialogues, Solidarities, and Activism

Governments, organizations and individuals in Canada are mobilizing around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action to change Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples. But what does “reconciliation” actually entail?  And what does it mean to live on Indigenous lands? 

We welcome students from different backgrounds and with different levels of experience to engage in deep discussions about the present moment in Indigenous-non-Indigenous relations. Through a series of dialogue-archives with Indigenous peoples as well as activists, allies, academics, and others who are supporting Indigenous resurgence, course participants will consider what decolonization means at individual and collective levels. 

The course will use pedagogies that invite holistic understandings and embrace complexities. Experiential learning, visits with Indigenous communities, thought leaders, dialogue-archive invitees, and reading reflections as well as individual and group projects will help course participants to identify how the personal and the political, the local and the global intersect their own identities and their relationships with Indigenous peoples. 

We will also consider questions of alliances and solidarities, as well as the opportunities and tensions in relation to action. Values of responsibility, respect and reciprocity will guide our exploration of how we might construct ethical activist practice based on decolonizing and transformative learning.  

ABOUT THE COURSE FACILITATORS:

Lynne Davis lived in Vancouver in the early 1980s and is an Associate Professor at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario in the Indigenous Studies Department. She is on sabbatical in 2017 and was invited to co-teach this course. Lynne’s most recent teaching is on Indigenous and International Community Development; Indigenous-Non-Indigenous Alliances for Social and Environmental Justice; and Transforming Settler Consciousness.

Sean Blenkinsop is a regular course leader in the Semester in Dialogue program. He is an environmental educator and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at SFU, with special assignment to the Semester in Dialogue Program.

Michelle Lorna Nahanee is a member of the Squamish Nation who works within the intersection of class, race, culture and creativity. As a communications designer, Michelle has created social justice campaigns for First Nations organizations across Canada, and within her home community. From health promotion to gender equity, Michelle’s collaborations have influenced opinions, changed behaviours and mobilized community action. She is happy to have recently joined the Board of Kwi Awt Stelmexw, a non-profit organization formed by Squamish Peoples to strengthen all aspects of Squamish heritage, language, culture, and art. Michelle is currently completing her MA in Communications at SFU with a thesis on disseminating decolonizing practices. She is grateful for her teachings.

Dorothy Christian, PhD (Secwepemc-Syilx), is a member of the Splatsin, one of 17 communities of the Secwepemc Nation.  She is the eldest of 10 and has one daughter and over 60 nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews.  Dorothy’s doctoral research “Gathering Knowledge:  Indigenous Methodologies of Land/Place-Based Visual Storytelling & Visual Sovereignty” looked closely at the connections between land, story and cultural protocols. The impetus for this research came from her production experience in the film and television industry where she delivered many Indigenous stories from Turtle Island (North America) to the Canadian screen culture.  Ms. Christian  accumulated over 100 professional production credits for writing, directing and segment producing her visual stories for a national broadcaster.   

 Recently Dorothy co-edited the book downstream:  Reimagining Water (2017) with Dr. Rita Wong (Emily Carr), published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Other publications include:  a book chapter, “Untapping Watershed Mind” co-authored with Rita Wong in Thinking With Water (2013), C. Chen, J. MacLeod, A. Neimanis (Eds.), published by McGill-Queens University Press; a book chapter in Volume 3 of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation books, “Reconciling With The People and The Land” in Cultivating Canada:  Reconciliation Through the Lens of Cultural Diversity (2011); chapter co-authored with Victoria Freeman (York University), “The History of a Friendship or Some Thoughts on Becoming Allies” in L. Davis (ed.). Alliances: Re/Envisioning Indigenous-non-Indigenous Relationships (2010), published by University of Toronto Press.