Weaving Solidarity

What an amazing way to end my collegiate career. GEOG 495 has been like no other class for me. I have taken seminars before but never a Community Service Learning course. Before we had even begun the class there were plans in the mix for Celia and Marla, (representatives of Jolom Mayaetik and K’inal Antzetik respectively) to join our class each for four weeks during the semester. Thank you to the Dean of Arts for the grant that paid for their airfare and visas! It was truly a privilege to have our community partners working directly with us in Vancouver. This class gave me the opportunity to use my hands as well as my mind and voice. This is extremely important to me because, as an arts student, my undergraduate degree does not stream me directly into one line of work. I now have a degree in international relations and what work I find after I graduate is not specified in the very least. I feel that this class gave me the opportunity to utilize the skills that I have learned in the five years I have been at UBC. It took group work to a new level. We broke off into different working groups over the course of the semester as we organized our various events – the exhibit, the weaving lunch, rhizome fundraising night, and the final event. Depending on what was needed for the event, we all looked within ourselves to see what we could offer as well as out into the world, to see what we could glean from it. I feel that this process has helped me to learn more about what I have to offer the world and has also helped me to envision myself applying my skills outside class and after I graduate.

Our class was the first I have ever taken that has helped me to question the system which I live in, my own privilege and oppression in my society, and the power structures that keep those in place. At the beginning of each class and event we held, we made an acknowledgement that our class was taking place on unceded Coast Salish territory. At first it seemed awkward and a bit fruitless to me. But now I see it as a way of inviting consciousness and spirituality into the class. I think that it seemed awkward to me because I had never done it before but also because it acknowledges a conflict that has yet to be resolved or seriously recognized by the majority of Canadians. The acknowledgement opens up a space in class that works toward listening, discussing, and learning about how indigenous peoples are marginalized and oppressed in Canada, Mexico, and throughout the world. I then have the choice to be compliant or indifferent to this marginalization or to take a stand against it.

This class was never easy. We discussed highly political and heavy concepts in class. These discussions did not fully answer the questions I had, rather they gave me new questions about the world I live in and tools with which to answer them. Thank you to all of my lovely classmates for trusting each other, challenging each other, opening up to each other and working together to help establish a new relationship between the students of GEOG 495, la mano, Jolom Mayaetik and K’inal Antzetik. Thank you to our inspiration prof Juanita Sundberg, to Jennifer Boundy for helping to dream up this relationship, and to Marla Gutierrez and Celia Ruiz for having the courage to put your trust in us students and to come to Canada.