On behalf of series organizer Alison Wylie, I write to invite you to join us at two public seminars taking place later this month.

Poster – GC-IS – November seminars

“Working Together to Enhance Ecosystem Sustainability: A Syilx / Settler Science Collaboration”

Jeannette Armstrong Associate professor in Indigenous studies and Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Knowledge and Philosophy, UBC, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC, and Lael Parrott, Professor in Sustainability and Director of the Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystem Services, UBC, Okanagan Campus, Kelowna, BC

20 November 2019, 5:00-6:30 pm 

Green College Coach House

Abstract: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and renewed pressures on nation-to-nation treaties (e.g. the Columbia River Treaty) have created new opportunities to transform Indigenous-Settler relationships across Canada. UBC Okanagan is demonstrably committed to these goals. UBC has a memorandum of understanding with the Okanagan Nation Alliance and a memorandum of agreement with the En’owkin Centre, both supporting the co-production of ecological knowledge through a respectful partnership between Syilx knowledge holders and western scientists. Still, the pathway towards reconciliation continues; co-production of knowledge is an ongoing process.  Drs. Armstrong and Parrott will discuss their shared experiences in leading the development of a collaborative Silyx/UBC research cluster in ecosystem sustainability and resilience. The research cluster is focused on key ecological concerns of Silyx communities, generating evidence, developing capacity to work as partners, and fostering innovative pedagogical initiatives (especially those engaging Syilx youth). Projects within the cluster seek to bridge academic and Indigenous worldviews to co-develop an enhanced understanding of socio-ecological interactions in Okanagan traditional territory. Through this work, a process of collaboration is emerging that may serve as an innovative, international model of respectful research-based collaboration between Indigenous and academic communities.

 

“Listening to Object Witnesses: Decolonizing Research in Museum Collections”

Margaret Bruchac Associate Professor of Anthropology, Coordinator of the Native American & Indigenous Studies Initiative, University of Pennsylvania

27 November 2019, 5:00-6:30 pm

Green College Coach House

Abstract: How do Indigenous objects in museum collections speak to those who collect, curate, observe, and claim them? Material traces and techniques obviously reflect particular ecosystems and eras, but do these objects also retain memories of their component parts, of the artisans who created them, and of the intentions spoken into them? Can certain objects communicate across cultural and temporal boundaries, or between human and other-than-human beings? In this talk, Dr. Margaret Bruchac discusses strategies for recovering object histories through both material analyses and critical reassessments of imposed categories (e.g., art, artifact, trade good) that have distanced objects from their origins and isolated them from others like themselves. Case histories will feature new research into iconic creations – such as a 17th century wooden war club embedded with brass and wampum, and a shell bead wampum belt with a single glass bead – that function as “object witnesses” to entangled colonial settler/Indigenous encounters. Through her practice of “reverse ethnography,” Bruchac will also reveal how, in many cases, “unknown” histories can be recovered by tracking the desires and actions of non-Indigenous curators and collectors who transported these objects and stories to physically and conceptually distant locales.

 

Everyone is welcome!

Those attending the seminar are warmly invited to join the speakers and organizers at Green College for dinner following the talk. For information on making dinner reservations, see www.greencollege.ubc.ca/how-attend-dinner

Series details and updates available on the Indigenous/Science website, through the Green College lecture calendar, and the Green College Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Please circulate widely.

Very best,

Eric

Eric Simons

UBC Anthropology