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In our English 470A course, we as a group of students have learned a great deal of informative knowledge that pertains to Indigenous literature. One invaluable lesson of professor Erika Patterson’s course is the limitations and difficulties that Indigenous people and literature still experience in today’s society. Indigenous peoples’ voices are still forgotten and unheard. With our final group project, slowly approaching, we as a group want to look at the importance of listening to those who have been almost ignored for far too long. To center our focus, our group wants to explore the difficulties of looking beyond our own perspectives and ideologies and better understand Indigenous literature, and the importance of their texts in Indigenous culture and Canadian culture.
Our goals for this final group project, is to collaborate together, to explore and create a better understanding of the politics of respect in regards to Indigenous literature and multiculturalism. We as a group want readers to learn from our informative work, and have their minds expanded and broadened beyond the limitations that white Anglo-Canadians have put on the work of Indigenous scholars, writers, and cultural producers. Our group, at the end of this final group project, want readers and listeners, to be provoked by thought and hope to be inspired to seek change in not only their lives, but in others’ as well.
This image represents the intersections of two worlds, in this case in the form of languages.
Our group’s area of research pertains to Daniel Coleman’s intervention of “Epistemic Justice, CanLit, and the Politics of Respect”. In his intervention, Coleman brings attention to the importance of the limitations that we, as white Anglo-Canadians have put on the work of Indigenous scholars, writers, and cultural producers. Instead of understanding the work through the eyes of the Creator, we instead, as a collective society of white Anglo-Canadians, have tried to fit the work of Indigenous scholars, writers, and cultural producers, into our world and perspective. Coleman, argues of the importance of “politics of recognition that assumes we already know the value of what we see to a concept that is ubiquitous in Indigenous thinking: a politics of respect” (3). Coleman, in his intervention, urges readers to transform their way of thinking about Indigenous literature and to aspire to a broader horizon for future Indigenous scholars, writers, and cultural producers.
The video “Oral History Research video” explores how oral stories and language can help shape research and why it is important in academia and education. Enjoy and please share any thoughts or questions you have.
Works Cited
barbaramitra. “Oral History Research Method.” Video. Youtube. 26 June, 2008. 24 July, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX1odZDA0gk
Coleman, Daniel. “Epistemic Justice, Canlit, And The Politics Of Respect.” Canadian Literature 204 (2010): 124-126. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 June 2015.
Mae, Lauren. “Left Brain, Right Brain.” n.d. Photograph. Web. 22 July 2015. http://www.lauren-mae.com/leftbrainrightbrain/
Mhalifu. “The Confluence of the Smoky and Peace Rivers.” 2010. Wikimedia Commons. Photograph. Web. 23 July 2015. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smoky_and_Peace_rivers.jpg
