Learning at Intercultural Intersections 2019

Re-imagining Equity
through critical and artful
practices
Pre-conference workshop,
Tuesday, March 12th, 2019
1:00 - 4:00 pm
Terrace room
Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom, Niitsitapi, Blackfoot Scholar,
Assistant Professor in Indigenous Studies with the
Department of Humanities, Mount Royal University
glindstrom@mtroyal.ca
Julie Vaudrin-Charette, PhD candidate and pedagogical
advisor, University of Ottawa and Cégep de l’Outaouais.
jvaudrincharette@gmail.com

Dans le cadre d’un projet de recherche doctorale recevant l’appui
du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada.

Land Acknowledgment
Traditional Secwepemc (Shuswap) Territory
Kamloops and Williams Lake campuses are both situated on the traditional and unceded Secwepemc (Shuswap) territory.
We acknowledge and give honour to the Secwepemc — the ancestral peoples who have lived here for thousands of years — upon
whose traditional and unceded land Thompson Rivers University is located. The Secwepemc maintain a spiritual and practical
relationship to the land, water, air, animals, plants and all things needed for life on Mother Earth. It is with that in mind that we owe this
debt of gratitude.
There are approximately 7,000 Secwepemc people in the territory, which spans 180,000 square kilometres through the interior plateau
of south central British Columbia. The mountain ranges, grasslands and river valleys surrounding the Fraser, and North and South
Thompson rivers create the boundaries of the territory.
TRU has one of the largest Indigenous student populations among BC post-secondary institutions, with well over 2,000 students (about
10 percent), representing 16 First Nation and Indigenous peoples enrolled in new, continuing, open learning and trades programs.
In addition to Secwepemc students, Indigenous students at TRU come from several BC nations, including the Carrier, Okanagan,
Nuxalk, and Nlaka'pamux, as well as students of Métis and Inuit ancestry.

https://www.tru.ca/indigenous.html

https://fishpondusa.com/fishpond/thompson-river-steelhead-lets-save-wild/

https://tkemlups.ca/fish-wheel/

Acknowledging our presence on Secwepemc terrritory and with Tk‘emlúpsemc,
‘the people of the confluence’.

Je suis d’une nation qui
Pensant exister
A prétendu faire la paix
Sans être brave.
*
In translations
As In-tensions
I take the risk
Of undivided attention
*
Fighting epistemicide
Through transformance
From performed relations
To renewal.
Accountable.
Vaudrin-Charette, J., (2019) Unpublished, Artist-in-residency, University of Alberta.

Gabrielle’s story of coming-to-know
●
●
●
●
●

How we introduce ourselves …
personal & cultural situation.
Acknowledging land …
the self/group reflection on identity.
Practising inclusion …
reflect upon voice and authority.
Learning Indigenous language … and how we think and behave
Reconciliation … a potential dialogue of co-transformation, of an emerging
and unexpected consciousness and agency.

. Gabrielle Lindstrom, Mount Royal University

Tobacco ties

Wilson, D. D., & Restoule, J. P. (2010). Tobacco ties: The relationship of the sacred to research. Canadian
Journal of Native Education, 33(1), 29.
Image : https://carleton.ca/indigenous/resources/tobacco-offering-protocol/

Defining these concepts as relational, actionable events
Decolonizing.
Reconciling.
Equity-izing.
Including
Interculturalizing.

A poem ? Ecological embroideries ?
Conversations ? Questions ?
Accessing the intercultural, pedagogical and
transformational possibilities within our
stories.

Our collective
storyweaving:
Self-location
Poems,
Embroidered
Gifts, and critical
questions.

http://pub.lucidpress.com/LII2019_EquityArtful/

Julie’s conference summary, LII 2019

References
Absolon, K. E. (2016). Wholistic and ethical: Social inclusion with indigenous peoples. Social Inclusion, 4(1),
44-56.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/viewFile/444/444
Barrett, M.J., Harmin, M., Maracle Karonhiakta’tie, B. & Thomson, C. (2016) Expanding the Toolbox :
Epistemological Stretching and Ethical Engagement. On-line:
http://www.cssspnql.com/docs/default-source/centre-de-documentation/toolbox_research_principles_aborigi
nal_context_eng16C3D3AF4B658E221564CE39.pdf
Chung, S. (2016) The morning after Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report: decolonisation
through hybridity, ambivalence and alliance, Intercultural Education, 27:5, 399-408, DOI:
10.1080/14675986.2016.1240497
Kovach, M. (2015). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts. University of Toronto
Press.
Louie, D. W., Poitras-Pratt, Y., Hanson, A. J., & Ottmann, J. (2017). Applying Indigenizing Principles of
Decolonizing Methodologies in University Classrooms. Canadian Journal of Higher Education/Revue canadienne
d'enseignement supérieur, 47(3), 16-33.
Hasebe-Ludt, E., Chambers, C., & Leggo, C. D. (2009). Life writing and literary métissage as an ethos for our times
(Vol. 27). Peter Lang.
McFarlane, P. and Nicole Schabus (eds.), (2018) Whose land is it Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization,
Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC. On-line:
https://fpse.ca/sites/default/files/news_files/Decolonization%20Handbook.pdf
Vaudrin‐Charette, J. (2019), Melting the Cultural Iceberg in Indigenizing Higher Education: Shifts to
Accountability in Times of Reconciliation. Teaching and Learning, 2019: 105-118. doi:10.1002/tl.20333
Wilson, D. D., & Restoule, J. P. (2010). Tobacco ties: The relationship of the sacred to research. Canadian Journal
of Native Education, 33(1), 29.