This set of depth education diagnostic exercises was created as a thought experiment for settlers to engage with some of the tensions and complexities that often emerge in discussions about returning land to Indigenous peoples in what is currently known as Canada. The set of exercises is grounded on the current context of Indigenous land …
Trying to bring people together to address local and global challenges, such as climate destabilization or systemic inequalities in times of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity is an enormous challenge in itself. Part of this challenge is that what has worked before in bringing people together is no longer working for many different reasons: …
Continue reading "7 steps back and 7 steps forward (or aside)"
by Vanessa Andreotti This masterclass was recorded on December 31, 2022, my last day as David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education. It presents a social cartography of stacked toxic challenges faced by Indigenous, Black and People of Color (IBPOC) navigating what Sarah Ahmed has called “the will to diversity in academia” (Ahmed, 2012; 2022). Drawing …
The book "Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism" was published in September 2021 (you can download a couple of sample chapters here). This book is an educational experiment full of dancing stories, metaphors, allegories, creative maps, and exercises that ask you to sit at the limits of our modern desires …
The Canadian government has declared September 30 a federal statutory holiday (National Day of Truth and Reconciliation) to recognize the violent legacy of residential schools. Different Indigenous peoples respond differently to this initiative. Some of these differences are generational: while it could be important for residential school survivors to hear the acknowledgement of the harm …
Continue reading "(The difficulties of) Truth and Reconciliation"
OUR INDIGENOUS RELATIONS AND COLLABORATORS IN BRAZIL ARE FACING A HUGE THREAT, AS THE COUNTRY IS VOTING TO TAKE AWAY INDIGENOUS LANDS, TO CANCEL INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AND TO REMOVE THE PROTECTIONS OF THE AMAZON FOREST. PLEASE SUPPORT US IF YOU CAN BY SIGNING THE OPEN LETTER BELOW. Open letter to the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court and …
Written by Vanessa Andreotti, Elwood Jimmy, and Bill Calhoun, February 24, 2021 Decolonial analysis The usual story of change is that there is a problem with the system that needs to be solved. The degree of the problem can vary from the system “not working optimally” to “totally screwed up”. The logical solution proposed is …
In this podcast Vanessa Andreotti offers some thoughts on the analyses and directions that motivate the work of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective. Click here for a related video in Portuguese. Transcribed text (audio): In the Decolonial Futures Collective, our main analysis is that colonialism doesn't start with subjugation of people or occupation of …
Continue reading "Some thoughts on the work of the GTDF collective"
Haruko Okano is an artist based in Vancouver who is one of the 2019 Thread Residency Fellows. The Thread Residency is part of the "Towards Braiding" project.
Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures 