by Zena Cumpston The following recipe for “Decolonial salad” is grounded in my own battles and experiences working as an Aboriginal woman in colonial institutions. Although this recipe is written in a raw and slightly facetious tone that may be hard for some to swallow, it is important to have spaces where we don’t need …
Returning lands
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 …
7 steps back and 7 steps forward (or aside)
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: …
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David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education Masterclass: A social cartography of stacked weights carried by IBPOC people as they navigate institutional spaces where the normalization and naturalization of colonialism and white supremacy are uninterrupted
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 …
In Earth’s Care Podcast Series
This is a trilingual podcast series rooted in critical conversations around justice, healing, and sustainability that extend between what is known as Vancouver and Latin America. All episodes take the form of a braided conversation where intergenerational and intercultural voices share sonic space. The focus is not reaching consensus or totalizing solutions about the current …
Coming of Age in the Climate Change Era
This podcast aims to weave the multiplicity of existence of low-intensity struggle youth and how they relate to climate collapse. Through creating an artistic palimpsest of stories, this podcast aims to lead listeners into visceral witnessing. This plurivocal storytelling hopes to incite connection, create support, and deepen inquiries for fellow youth. It is not about …
Hospicing Modernity (book) Zoom Sessions
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 difficulties of) Truth and Reconciliation
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 …
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Avaaz Petition: Protect the Amazon and Indigenous rights or face international boycott
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 …
Gift Contract
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 …
Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures 