Tag Archives: hope

Post 2 – Indigenous Literatures Matter: A Talk With Daniel Heath Justice – David Loti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AttZD8LVqA

Visited 9 November 2018

Responding to the observation that non-Indigenous people often view Indigenous people as insignificant and lacking, UBC Professor of First Nations & Indigenous Studies and Director of the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies Daniel Heath Justice speaks about the hardest book he has ever written: Why Indigenous Literatures Matter and why he agrees with Craig Womack’s important statement that the American canon is part of the Indigenous canon as opposed to the reverse. Justice maintains a posture of hope in the midst and history of conflict, misunderstanding, and oppression in Indigenous communities.

Post 4 – Unceded territory – Megaphone – David Loti

http://www.megaphonemagazine.com/unceded_territory

Visited 24 October 2018

 

This 2016 article provides a helpful overview of some of the history and varying perspectives of land acknowledgements in Vancouver and Victoria. Okanagan Grand Chief Stewart Phillip offers a hopeful perspective saying, “Its [sic] encouraging to know we have made that kind of progress [to hear official acknowledgements . . . from Vancouver city council]. We’ve come a long way from the dark days of racist denial that existed when I first got involved” while Musqueam First Nations activist Audrey Siegl (sχɬemtəna:t) says these sorts of acknowledgements are “just tokenism, pretty but empty words, spoken so we will be pacified for at least a little bit longer.” Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps states, “It’s simple, really—it is their territory,” referring to the Songhees and Esquimalt people. However beyond a political platitude I wonder what it actually means to say that the city of Victoria “is their territory.”