Hello, LAST303!

My name is Erika Peterson; I am a second year student at UBC studying international relations and philosophy. In the realm of international relations, I am particularly interested in decolonization and related political theory, protest, and resistance. I also study Spanish, and a fair amount of my political studies have focused on Latin America, but most have not gone in depth into indigeneity, in the area or elsewhere. I am excited to learn about indigenous peoples of Latin America in relation to concepts like sovereignty, political systems, and governance. I hope to gain a better understanding of indigenous cultures in Latin America and how they are similar and different to indigenous cultures here, as well as non-indigenous groups in Latin America. Additionally, because I am from Minnesota, I hope to also draw parallels and distinctions between what I know about indigenous peoples where I am from, in Canada, and in Latin America. I am also looking forward to analyzing the means of communication and literature that we will be examining, and how different modes of transmitting stories, history, and information can themselves carry certain values and biases.

In class on Wednesday, I found the discussion on land acknowledgements to be very illuminating. Although I was familiar with the UBC land acknowledgement, the recent Faculty of Arts one was new to me. Our discussions about language and voice were very interesting to me in both these contexts. The pronouns used and different perspectives taken in each acknowledgment seems to say something about the purpose they are intending to serve, as well as who is communicating to who, and I am curious about what motivated these differences. Additionally, the inclusion of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language in the Arts acknowledgement seems significant to me, especially in relation to our conversation about voice. I’m interested in exploring how language and voice are connected, and how language can carry culture in ways we do not realize until we are looking at languages other than our first. The concept of subalternity is also one I am interested in, especially in the context of political relations and how the power structures of politics intersect with social and cultural dynamics. Lastly, I am excited to look at how identity interacts with the aforementioned concepts. How does an indigenous identity look different in different groups of people, different individuals, and when intersecting with other identities? How do distinct cultures express these differences or similarities?

I am looking forward to spending this semester exploring these questions and others with all of you!