Hello, my name is Isabella! I am a fourth year student at UBC currently majoring in Biology. I will be graduating this coming May, and afterwards I will decide on wether I want to pursue medicine or become a medical illustrator. Two very different things, but reason being I have strong passions in the arts which I don’t want to let go yet! This includes dancing, animating, and baking! I have a pretty active schedule, which includes training for dance performances, working part time at a biotech company, and studying. A fun fact about me is that I have a pet lovebird named George.

I joined this class because part of my heritage goes back to Central America, and I want to learn more about indigenous cultures in Latin America and have a stronger  understanding of the history.

I found the first lecture rather interesting because the land acknowledgements aren’t really discussed at UBC. My only experience in which I had to think carefully and incorporate my personal land acknowledgement was during my time as a first year orientation leader at UBC. The lecture made me think of all my past experiences with indigenous cultures being integrated as part of my curriculum growing up in Canada, and how there were many times that I felt that the culture wasn’t being properly conveyed or the values weren’t as special. In elementary school I remember that the culture was introduced to students by telling us their legends such as “Raven: A tricksters tale from the Pacific Northwest” by Gerald McDermott, and how we did arts and crafts that would symbolize parts of the legend. While in highschool were learned more about indigenous struggles and genocide, however nothing about what is being done in present day to preserve their cultures. The one thing that hasn’t changed is a land acknowledgement that was presented before every assembly or course introduction. I feel like this is a small way to have the indigenous voices heard or their presence made to have us aware yet it doesn’t give the impact or impression that it should. In other words, the acknowledgement can be quickly overlooked for both someone who is familiar with the acknowledgements or not familiar.