Nov. 2 and Nov. 4: Upcoming Events

November 2, 2011

Guest Lecturer: Morgan Wood, (Stony Mountain Cree) and Masters Candidate in the Inter-Disciplinary Graduate Studies program at UBCO.

"EXXXOSED: The Aesthetics of Aboriginal Erotic Art"

Morgan Wood will discuss arts activism as it pertains to the exhibition on aboriginal erotic art, by examining the question, "why is Indigenous sexuality so threatening to mainstream culture?" The presence of an indigenous body within the classic European white cube changes the framework and visual dialogue of artworks exhibited. The transformation is an act of activism that challenges the mainstream historical dialogue. "I shift the framework within Contemporary Aboriginal history from an anthropological view to an historical view."

See Morgan Wood's bio on the ArtSask website, "Morgan Wood is an artist, writer, teacher, arts activist and curator. Her work in these areas has been strongly influenced by her First Nations ancestry and culture. She is a non-status Stony Mountain Cree woman and was born in Southern Saskatchewan. Her family originates from the Michel Callihou Band in Alberta and her Great Grandmother was Victoria Callihou, an important figure in the early history of the prairies. (Go to ArtSask to read more.)


November 4, 2011

Guest Lecturer (via Skype teleconference): Lisa Kahaleole Hall, (Kanaka Maoli), Associate Professor, Wells College, New York, U.S.A.

Hall states, "I've always been interested in how race and gender structure American life." Hall began approaching the ideas of race and gender as an undergraduate at Yale, where she was a women's studies major. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Read more...

(See also these concepts presented in action >>Kanaka Maoli struggles against desecration)


November 4, 2011

Undergraduate Facilitators: Mallory Hewelko and Johanna Olson. To introduce critical issues affirmed and elevated in the analysis of Dr. Lisa Kahaleole Hall, UBCO undergraduate students will co-facilitate a discussion of her article, "Hawaiian at Heart."

"FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LEDGER: AN INDIAN VIEW OF THE HUDSON BAY COMPANY"

View this film on IsumaTV.org. Click here.

STUDENT FACILITATION SCHEDULE

Lipan Apache Indians North of the Rio Grande, c. 1834–1836. Watercolor by Lino Sánchez y Tapia after the original sketch by José Maria Sánchez y Tapia. Lipan Apaches were the main victims of both punitive Spanish policies and the ready market for enslaved Indians in French Louisiana. SOURCE: Courtesy Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Click here for the chart of student facilitated discussions.

Please send me the title of the article/chapter you are going to facilitate. I will update schedule accordingly.

WELCOME

Confronting the State on the Texas-Mexico border. That's me (August 2009) in front of the gulag-scale wall currently bifurcating southern Lipan Apache Nation and rancheria lands. I'm looking south--to our community lands on the other side, which is North of the U.S.-Mexico border. In other words, inside the U.S. territory. Significant biodiversity habitats were stripped out in order for the 18 foot steel and concrete barrier wall to be constructed on the premise of 'terrorism'. The U.S. built a sizeable percentage of the Texas-Mexico border wall on Indigenous peoples' lands.

Dagotee gozhoo! Welcome to Gender & Women's Studies 495/Indigenous Studies 395 Term 1 (2010). This class is located at the University of British Columbia on and within the customary Okanagan places. We are situated in the traditional territory of Nsyilxcen speaking peoples.

I am looking forward to a very special community of learners here, and I aspire to share my research and perspectives about Indigenous decolonization approaches, methods, histories, and on-going processes.

As we approach the new academic year, and our work yet to unfold, and as we move into the Labor Day holiday ('holy day'), I am carrying forward a years'long inquiry into the invisibility of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in the labor histories of Canada and the U.S. comparative to Mexico. Writing, situating and 'placing' Indigenous Peoples into labor history of the Americas is a critical investigation required in order to make known and material the multiple ways in which colonizations, development, and attendent militarism use, design, and institutionalize gender, 'Native others', heterosexism, and religion as normative in sovereignty debates. On this 'Labour Day', let us interrogate how Indigenous peoples--and particularly Indigenous women, youth and elders--are analyzing these (and many other) tools of oppression. How, when, and where are Indigenous peoples' critiques of privilege and power structures instrumental to transformation? How do Indigenous peoples here in the Okanagan engage the critical keywords of 'water', 'development', 'knowledge systems' and 'sustainability'? What do Indigenous peoples' perspectives of those institutional keywords look like? Writing Indigenous peoples' perspectives and principles from invisibility to visibility is a key component of this course.

Being an Indigenous person, or of Indigenous heritage is not a pre-requisite. Aspiring to be an engaged learner, and dedication to the truth is.

I look forward to this and many more investigations with you.

I'll be seeing you on Thursday, September 9, 2010. Until then, have a safe Labor Day weekend.