Hi everyone i’m devlin,

I am in the Interdisciplinary studies program at UBC, and have been studying at UBC’s Vancouver campus since September 2020. I was originally registered in LAST 303 in 2023, but had to drop it for scheduling reasons, very happy to have the chance now in 2024 to take this class! I remember waiting since registration opened back in June so that I can have my chance at taking this course and i’m very happy to be here! I just visited the ubc bookstore, and received all my physical copy books for the semester, since we have a lot to read I want to be able to bring these books around with me everywhere so that I can fully consume the course content intentionally over the next few months.

I really enjoyed the first lecture discussion with you all, and found everyone’s ideas and thoughts contributed well to the greater conversation of Land Acknowledgements! As important as they are, there’s a lot to unpack, and discuss why we use these words and where we use them. It’s important to continue the conversation and keep people educated on the matter, and such. If we simply talk about it and then move onto the next thing, it becomes a commodity or routine, and in my opinion we should always be questioning and seeking more answers.

I am very excited about the first reading, The Popol Vuh, anything Mexico related, about Mexican culture and traditions is extremely interesting to me, Mayan especially. I have traveled to Mexico about four or five times, and each time is always special. I think what i’m excited to learn this semester is the South American Indigenous peoples culture, particularly the shamanistic beliefs, and Brazil, but the book I’m probably most excited to read this term is about Jose Maria, and learning about Peruvian anthropology. So nice to meet you all and hopefully we will leave this course better knowing of these cultures than before. -devlin