The Annual Publication of The Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies
We acknowledge that the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the University of British ColumbiaVancouver are located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded homelands of the həəmiəspeaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people. We value our long-standing relationship with the Musqueam Nation and are grateful for the many ways in which they support and strengthen our unit.
CONTRIBUTORS
Aiyana Twigg / Ben Chung / Bernard Perley / Candace Galla
Candis Callison / Cate Ngieng / Cecilia Raweater / Charlotte
Taylor / Daisy Rosenblum / Dante Cerron / Gary Lewis
Fiona Campbell / John Bell / Josh McKenna / Karlene Harvey
Kelsey Wrightson / Mark Turin / Olivia Carriere McKenna
Pasang Yangjee Sherpa / Sara MacLellen / Shaznay Waugh
Shreya Shah / Tamara Hackett / Tricia Logan
Dear CIS community,
Each year brings new reasons for celebration as well as new challenges. CIS has been fortunate to have outstanding staff, faculty, and students to share the joys of good news and opportunities to work together through the challenges. We celebrate the recognition of our outstanding faculty and the recognition they receive outside of UBC as well. Glen Coulthard was awarded the Jackman Humanities fellowship to be a Distinguished Visiting Indigenous Faculty Fellow at the University of Toronto this past year. Daniel Justice spent the year as a Harvard College Visiting Professor of Ethnicity, Indigeneity, and Migration at Harvard University. We also recognize and celebrate David Gaertner’s promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. Though not named, the rest of the faculty continue to receive awards, grants, and other forms of recognition that brings distinction to CIS as well as UBC.
On the staff side of things, we saw the resilience of the staff as they worked with one another in a year of unexpected leaves and secondments. The teamwork and ethics of mutual support among the staff made the challenges an opportunity to display their professionalism and commitment to serving our CIS community.
REFLECTION Bernard Perley
Some noteworthy items from the past year include CIS’s inaugural John P. Bell lecture on Global Indigenous Rights. In consultation with John P. Bell, CIS invited Dr. Kyle Whyte to give the 2024 lecture. Dr. Whyte’s talk, titled Indigenous Climate Action at the Speed of Consent and held at the Sty-Wet-Tan Hall, was a “sold out” event with a robust Q&A. The Centre for Climate Justice also provided invaluable logistical support for the event. CIS also invited Dr. Chadwick Allen to share his work on earthworks with the CIS community and the FNIS 220 class in particular. This too was hosted by the First Nations House of Learning as part of their active campaign to promote more academic events.
In addition to the academic public outreach, CIS continues to promote activities to support student health and wellbeing. In Davison’s words, “Among the activities include the dream catcher workshop, Greenheart TreeWalk, and Mario Kart tournament. Students really enjoyed getting to make their own dream catcher and unwind from classes by attending social events with their peers.” The students, staff and faculty share dual commitments to academic excellence as well as health and wellbeing. Thank you all for making CIS a welcoming, supportive, and growing community. •
REFLECTION
Josh McKenna
Hey everyone, I’m Josh McKenna, the editor of the 2023/24 edition of spa:l’/ The Raven. Thanks for picking up a copy!
I’m Métis and grew up outside of my traditional territory in socalled Vancouver, BC. My family originally comes from Treaty One Territory in the Red River Valley in Manitoba. My roots are primarily in the Métis communities of St. Boniface and St. Laurent. I’ve always had an interest in the field of Indigenous Studies, perhaps because so many Métis share an interest in our family histories, and how they inform our culture and politics. In 2017, I got my degree in Media Studies with a Minor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies from UBC, and have continued my research in Indigenous Studies during my time as a graduate student pursuing an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies over the past few years. After being a CIS student for seven years, I landed a job with the Institute in January of 2024 as their Communications Assistant. Over the past year, I’ve been able to work alongside CIS’s staff and faculty, many of whom I’ve looked up to and spent considerable time reading the works of throughout my time in academia. It’s been a wonderful experience to be welcomed into this community in a different fashion than I previously have been as a student.
My special thanks go out to Dr. David Gaertner, a longtime professor of mine and now one of my graduate supervisors, who initially put me forward as a candidate for the position I currently hold. Compiling this edition of spa:l’/ The Raven was no small feat, and required coordinating a lot of moving parts. I’m proud of the finished product and how it reflects the hard work the CIS extended community puts in to create decolonized spaces in academia, contribute to the field of Indigenous Studies on a global scale, and ignite the passion to forward the project of Indigenous liberation amongst students and community members alike –from Turtle Island to Palestine. Throughout this magazine, you’ll find everything from faculty reflections to poetry to event recaps, so dive in and see what we’ve been up to for the past year! Enjoy. •
● September 14 , 2023
Having Reservations: Ethnographing Consequential Insecurities w/ Dr. Bernard Perley
Co-sponsored by CIS
● September 19, 2023
Tricky Administrative Spaces: Indigenous Women Administrators’ Experiences in Canadian Universities w/ Dr. Candace Brunette-Debassige
Co-sponsored by CIS
● October 4, 2023
Opening Celebration: CoDHerS (Collaborative Digital Heritage Studio)
Co-sponsored by CIS
● October 5, 2023
Greenheart Treewalk
CIS/AISA
● October 20, 2023
Challenging False Solutions and Centering Indigenous Responses to the Climate Crisis w/ Mateus Tremembé, Dr. Tabitha Robin, and Dr. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa
Co-sponsored by CIS
● October 25, 2023
Dreamweavers: Indigenous Poetry in Conversation w/ Billy-Ray Belcourt, Samantha Nock, and Brandi Bird
CIS/FNHL/Iron Dog Books
● October 26, 2023
Mario Kart Contest
CIS/AISA
● October 26, 2023
Pumpkin Carving for National Pumpkin Day
CIS/AISA
● November 27, 2023
Earthworks in Transit: Indigenous Mound Building in the 20th and 21st Centuries w/ Chadwick Allen
● November 30, 2023
Dreamcatcher Workshop
CIS/AISA
● December 5, 2023
CCJ Year-End Fest Keynote Address w/ Dr. Zoe Todd
Co-sponsored by CIS 2023-2024
CIS Events
● February 6, 2024
Indigenous Student Lunch
CIS hosted
● February 27, 2024
NDN Board Game Session: Ta7talíya’s “Walking in Good Relations” (Indigenous Snakes & Ladders)
● February 29, 2024
John P. Bell Global Indigenous Rights Lecture: Indigenous Climate Action at the Speed of Consent w/ Dr. Kyle Whyte
● March 13, 2024
Earth as Refuse: Embracing Our Ecological Selves in the Anthropocene w/ Dekila Chungyalpa
March 25, 2024
Shaping Climate Justice Through Indigenous Knowledge w/ Dr. Jeanette Armstrong, Dr. Christine Winter, and Naomi Klein
Co-sponsored by CIS
● March 26, 2024
Beaded Earring Workshop w/ Camryn Desjarlais
CIS/AISA
● April 10, 2024
FNIS 400 Practicum Presentations
● June 4, 2024
NDN Taco Lunch
CIS/AISA
● June 10, 2024
Indigenous Pop-Up Arcade
CIS/AISA/CEDaR
● June 19, 2024
Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre Tour
CIS/AISA/IRSHDC
● June 25, 2024
Exploring Indigenous Research Resources at UBC
CIS/Xwi7xwa Library
● June 25, 2024
Plenary: Critical Ecosystems vs. Critical Minerals? w/ Justina Ray, Cristina Dorador, Bill McKibben, Mary Maje, Linda McDonald, Naomi Klein
Co-sponsored by CIS
● August 9, 2024
Movies and Momos
CIS/Asian Studies
FACULTY REFLECTIONS
Candis Callison
2024 has been a year of getting back to work for me after a long medical leave. I had the wonderful opportunity to teach FNIS 220 (Indigenous Representation and Cultural Politics) again in Winter 2024. It’s a great time to be studying and talking about representations with so much Indigenous-led media and journalism now out in the world. Students put together some great podcasts as part of their course work. Starting in June, I returned to a long-term research project that focuses on Arctic and northern journalism in an era of climate change.
As part of my ethnographic fieldwork, I’ve been interviewing journalists who report on and live in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alaska, and Norway. I love the North (my father lives in Whitehorse) and it’s been really energizing to begin (and continue) conversations in places where Indigenous people are either a large portion or the majority of the public that journalism serves. The last decade has seen an intensification of climate impacts amongst many communities – the Arctic and sub-Arctic are changing at a much faster rate than anywhere else.
At the same time, media organizations have been navigating their own significant economic, policy, and technological challenges, so it’s an important time to be asking questions about how journalists narrate the past and present and look to the future. The project will become a book sometime in the new year, I hope! I’m also continuing to participate as a regular contributor to the podcast, Media Indigena, and host/producer Rick Harp and I have been cooking up some plans
Candace Galla
2024 has been quite a busy year overall! My colleague, Dr. Shannon Bischoff (Purdue University Ft Wayne) and I launched our Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled Indigenous Languages: From Policy and Planning to Implementation and Assessment. With support from UBC’s Continuous Learning Advancement Fund, this free course was launched on International Mother Language Day on February 21 and has since attracted over 800 participants from nearly 90 countries worldwide. Through this MOOC, students gain theoretical knowledge and practical skills that can be employed to develop and implement a language plan that supports their respective language(s) and community(ies). We intend to provide content in multiple languages in the near future to expand our reach through the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032).
We also introduced Indigenous Language Rights & Realities (ILR&R), a new independent section of the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Language Documentation and Conservation (University of Hawaiʻi Press). ILR&R is a formal, academic and multilingual publishing space that prioritizes and centers the work of Indigenous and Non-dominant individuals, including elders, language users, knowledge holders, cultural practitioners, educators, researchers, and advocates, from diverse cultural, intellectual, and institutional traditions and practices. The vision of ILR&R is to transform the academy into a space where Indigenous and Non-dominant Peoples, languages, cultures, knowledge, and practices have equal presence, influence, and power, ultimately impacting the lives of all. Our inaugural publication includes a series of papers that were presented at the 2023 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. •
Mark Turin
This past academic year, I was invited to take on two new responsibilities in the Faculty of Arts: as the inaugural Director of a new faculty-wide initiative, Digital Scholarship in Arts (DiSA), a pilot project to develop embedded computational and software support for researchers in Arts and to stimulate research opportunities for graduate students and faculty in the Digital Humanities and Social Sciences; and as the Interim Editor of Pacific Affairs, a peer-reviewed, independent, and interdisciplinary scholarly journal focussing on current political, economic, and social issues throughout Asia and the Pacific. Both have been rewarding, and have provided opportunities to share the exciting work happening in Critical Indigenous Studies with scholarly communities outside of our unit.
In other news, I am delighted that two of my PhD students successfully defended their dissertations during the reporting period, and four other doctoral students on whose committees I serve also defended successfully.
In April 2024, I received news that my proposal for a SSHRC Insight Grant was successful, with five years of funding for a project entitled: ‘Implementing relational lexicography in four Indigenous language dictionaries.’
It has also been a very strong year in terms of publications, including two books (one open access, co-authored with an Indigenous UBC Anthropology graduate student and other Indigenous scholars; and the other an updated and revised edition of my earlier grammar of Thangmi, published in Nepal) and a special, open access issue of Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America on Indigenous lexicography which I co-edited. •
Tamara Hackett
FNEL&FNIS STUDENT REFLECTIONS
Greetings, it’s lovely to be a part of this edition of The Raven!
My name is Tamara Hackett, I am currently a third-year student majoring in Psychology and minoring in FNIS. I am Coast Salish from the Homalco nation, located in Campbell River B.C, with extended relations in the Squamish and Tla’amin nations.
The FNIS courses that I have taken have greatly guided my academic journey here at UBC, as the structure of them cater to Indigenous methodologies with respect of the sacred lands that we reside on at this institution as students. Faculty within the FNIS program have offered such a wide variety of resources for students to explore, I personally recommend Professor Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Professor Daniel H. Justice, and of course Dr. Alexa Manuel, for anyone interested in diversifying their understanding of indigeneity and what it means to decolonize academia.
“Goodbye, Snauq” by Lee Maracle, is a short story that beautifully narrates the lands, waters, and biodiversity of Vancouver before the time of colonization, and moved me to pursue a career path aimed at uplifting Indigenous people’s livelihood. Eventually, I hope to graduate my undergrad and then step up to my grad studies at the School of Community and Regional Planning here at UBC, in an attempt to relieve the settler-colonial pressures within the so-called province of British Columbia. When I’m not studying profusely in the depths of Koerner Library, I am sitting in the Longhouse or the Collegium chatting with friends. •
Olivia Carriere McKenna
I’m Olivia Carriere McKenna and I am going into my third year of the First Nations and Indigenous Studies program. I am Michif on my mother’s side from the M é tis communities of St. Boniface and St. Laurent in Treaty 1 territory and mixed European on my father’s side. I’ve really enjoyed the First Nations and Indigenous Studies program so far as it’s given me an opportunity to do University education with my values, political obligations and cultural perspectives always being put at the forefront. It’s been such a cool experience to be learning from Indigenous academics that I’ve read and cited and then suddenly become my teachers! I also really appreciate the space that this program fosters to learn from not only our profs but our peers, friends, and community perspectives, encompassing a global Indigenous perspective.
Outside of school more recently, I’ve been working in a student position at UBC to allocate UBC spend to Indigenous business and communities and have been jigging around the country at lots of different community events! While back in Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan for the Back to Batoche community gathering, I competed in the jigging competition for the first time, which was a lot of fun. Hoping for the win next year ;) •
PRACTICUM STUDENT REFECTION
Cecilia Raweater
Cate Ngieng
My name is Cate Ngieng and I’m a fourth year undergrad student of mixed Chinese and Métis descent majoring in First Nations and Endangered Languages (FNEL) and Anthropology.
As I reminisce about the last year, I realize how very fortunate I am for the opportunities afforded to me. I have learned so much and look forward to learning so much more as I come closer to completing my undergraduate studies.
As an FNEL student, I have had the opportunity to work at Community Engaged Documentation and Research (CEDaR) with Dr. Daisy Rosenblum for the last year. At CEDaR, I gained hands-on experience with language documentation and archival technologies, using what I have learned in the classroom over the last three years. Working at CEDaR has also given me the opportunity to do some work as an Exhibit Assistant at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) in the month of May. Through that position, I gained insight into the extent of the work and people involved with exhibits at MOA. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities I have had to put my skills and knowledge to use outside of the classroom and am excited to further use and enhance them as I head into my fourth year of undergraduate study. •
During this past 2023-24 academic year Winter session, I had the great opportunity of being a part of the FNIS 400 Research practicum cohort supervised by Dr. David Gaertner and TA Lilith Charlet. I was partnered with the Britannia Community Centre, located in East Vancouver, to help create a tangible and comprehensive case study report for a prospective EldersIn-Residence program. Over nine months, I collected data on already established Elders-In-Residence programs located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and beyond.
This process was followed by community engagement, in the form of three sharing circles and one interview totalling feedback from 28 people a part of the Britannia cache. Under the guidance of my teaching and organization team, in addition to my peers, I was supported in leading Indigenous-centred research with the primary goal being to serve the community with their wants and wishes. I was able to use Indigenous methodologies, where each of my sharing circles had a meal, water/tea, and a gift in exchange for the knowledge they shared to help the creation of an EIR program. We sat in a circle, talking over a mutual activity, with people ranging in age. In addition to youth 18+, adults, and Elders there were also babies and non-human kin present, bringing together the essence of community.
Everyone was so supportive in this journey and a full circle moment for me — as my family accessed the Britannia Centre services in the form of graduating from the high school and attending community events. I was offered the opportunity to give back, and I took it. I am delighted to be able to continue my relationship with Britannia, working with them over the summer to help create job postings for the Elders-In-Residence program based on my practicum research. Tsiikaahsi’tsihp nito’toohs (I am happy to be here). •
DECHINTA DECHINTA
In the last year Dechinta was on the land in summer and winter, but for the first time, delivering programming in all three territories. Dechinta’s approach to education celebrates the diversity of Northern communities and learners. ► ► ►
► ► ►
In Tu Lidłini, a spring hide camp brought warm sun and high waters. We played hand games and Elder Amos skinned two beavers, sharpening his blade against the tail, before roasting it over the fire until the fat crackled.
Just two weeks earlier, in partnership with the Inuvik Native Band Office, Dechinta co-hosted a hide healing camp that saw snow and frosty mornings while we learned how to tan hides. Summer in Denendeh brought a generative two weeks under the midnight sun. There we learned how to work with the land and each other in new ways, bringing together artists, activists, academics, and students to generate relationships across differences, informed by a shared connection to Denendeh. This fall was spent storying the land in Kangirłiniq, NU, storying the land in Dechinta’s first pilot course in Nunavut. The course focused on stories and storywork, and activating the land to learn about Inuit history, cultural material and technology, and Inuit law and sovereignty.
Putting people and the land at the centre of our programming, Dechinta continues to demonstrate the importance of learning with the land. Since 2010, we have seen that bringing generations together to learn in place creates spaces of transformation. Healing across generations, connecting to land and to each other, Dechinta means more than being in the bushDechinta also creates home.
We look forward to meeting you on the land. •
poetry by SHAZNAY
WAUGH
this world is not mine I am this world the way my pupils form welcome the sun in whole; the way my palms fit into the folds of bark wrapped around birch like this flesh contains me and cannot contain me to my own flesh. i am bounded not by borders nor binaries that constrict me, but by the interlaced tissue that weaves my dreams and their dreams into a vision captured in the meeting place that is my pupils and the sun; that is my palm and the outstreched arms of birch that beckon me inwards till I am met with myself. witness me transform into the world as it becomes; the world becomes transformed as I am witnessed.
to wither into knots and instead i am tangled in the arms of willow that cradle me like their child.
I starve myself and it becomes ceremony — sunlight gathers on my face freckles dance in gratitude; wind follows their footsteps wisping my dampened hair into waves, soft and gentle like the Dehcho laps unto shore like one deep breath from the sky might erase all evidence of this form. from the floor
I await total erasure and instead I am greeted with renewal. what is the sake in keeping me I ask the willow. you are a keepsake of my childhood.
liken yourself to moss and I will meet you on the floor. •
Tell us a bit about yourself. (i.e. where are you from, where did you grow up/go to school, how did you come to own and operate Phoenix Perennials?)
I would say I’m from Ontario but I also lived in Germany (my father was in the Canadian Armed Forces) and Nova Scotia when I was young. That being said I’ve lived in BC for more than half of my life. When I first moved to the West Coast it felt like my natural habitat. I knew I was here to stay. I went to UBC and did two degrees. The first a B.Sc. in Conservation Biology and the second an M.Sc. in Botany (Plant Ecology).
When my Masters thesis was in a full 130 page rough draft in March 2004 and I was only a few months away from completing the degree, an obscure email arrived in my inbox about a nursery for sale in Richmond. I have always loved propagating plants and had already been running a home-based business growing and selling plants to local nurseries and the public. I had thought that once I completed my thesis I would strike a balance between botanical consulting work and a small seasonal nursery. Two weeks after receiving that fateful email I owned the nursery. I took six months off the Masters to run the nursery for the season then returned and completed my degree in the fall. That was 21 seasons ago and to date I have not done any botanical consulting work. The nursery has taken over my life!
Phoenix Perennials is a true nursery where we grow a large portion of our own plants in our production facilities that we sell to the public in our retail garden centre. We also ship plants mail order across Canada. We offer more than 5000 different ornamental and edible plants a year from around the world. We also include many BC native plants.
Can you tell us more about native plants? Do you go out of your way to stock plants Indigenous to the area? How does the prevalence of these plant species benefit the local ecosystem?
Wherever I travel around the world I want to know about the native plants from that place. I always look for the local field guides. Native plants tell the story of a place, of what its ecology is now and gives us hints about what its ecology has been in the past. And when you learn about native plants from different places you can also get a sense for the evolution of plants and the relationships between different places. There is also the ecology around those plants involving animals and insects. And, of course, there are the rich relationships of the humans and their native plants whether that be the Greeks adorning their columns with the leaves of bear’s breeches and growing olives and grapes or First Nations in BC using western redcedar for clothing, tools, canoes, homes, and art or camas lilies and salal for food. ►
Since I live in BC and have studied native plants, I’ve always had a special appreciation for them. It helps that they’re beautiful too. Growing native plants in our gardens connects our personal spaces with the ecology of the land around us, with the human history of this place, and helps to support pollinators and other wildlife. I have always worked hard to offer as many native plants as possible at the nursery. This year we had nearly 90 different species!
What interested you about language revitalization/preservation?
I have been interested in plants from a very young age, as early as 3 or 4. I started collecting plants as a child and gardening as a teenager. I was interested in all plants, horticultural, edible, and wild and spent a lot of my youth botanizing my local fields and forests, helping my mom in our veggie garden, and growing houseplants and gardening.
At the same time I was also interested in literature
When I moved to BC, I picked up books like Plants of Coastal British Columbia by Pojar and MacKinnon and works by Nancy Turner that discussed and explored the relationships of First Nations peoples with native plants. I also read One River by Wade Davis that described Indigenous knowledge and relationships with native plants in South America. This all lead to an interest in ethnobotany and a growing awareness of the relationships of culture and language with the natural world and how the name of a plant in an Indigenous language and its relationship with that culture could reveal a different, fascinating, and valuable worldview.
What made you choose to support the First Nations & Endangered Languages program with funds raised from the sale of native plants?
From the early days of Phoenix Perennials we have done fundraisers for a diversity of local charities. More recently I wanted to evolve our fundraising to focus on particular charities that I feel are really important to me personally. The thought of
As for our fundraiser for FNEL, I have read articles over the years about the loss of Indigenous languages around the world including the precarious situation for many First Nations languages across Canada and right here in BC. It has always felt like a gut punch that these languages are being lost, that these peoples are losing an integral part of their cultures, and that the world is losing the opportunity to learn from them.
More recently the movement for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada has resonated with me and I had pondered where I fit into that, what small positive role could I play, how could I be an ally? Being aware of the long relationship of First Nations with native plants, I wondered if we could build a fundraiser around our native plant section that could also help raise awareness about the issues faced by First Nations people and, in a way, involve my customers in helping in a concrete way. By buying, growing, and learning about native plants they also get to play a small role in Truth and Reconciliation, not to mention support local pollinators and add beauty to their gardens.
So then I thought, but if I did a fundraiser, where would the money go? And then I realized it should
go to support First Nations languages since language is central to culture, community, traditions, history, identity – all things that First Nations are working to recover, protect, and build. It didn’t take long before I found the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC and your First Nations and Endangered Languages program. To me it felt like an effective organization since the program is training new students to work in language revitalization. Staff and students also have connections with many different First Nations communities so I thought that FNEL would be able to direct the money where it feels it would help the most.
In the first two years of 2022 and 2023 we’ve been able to raise $3500 for the program through sales of native plants at Phoenix Perennials which is 20% of our profits. And we’ve sold lots of native plants in 2024 so I’m looking forward to tallying up our donation at the end of the season. And I look forward to many more years of supporting FNEL. •
I’m delighted the torch for the annual Global Indigenous Rights Lecture has been passed to Bernie Perley and his colleagues at CIS. The recent Kyle Whyte event was a great success.
The idea of a lecture series arose from a meeting in 2015 with Linc Kesler, then director for the First Nations House of Learning at UBC. It seemed like a natural progression of past career and interests. I’m a UBC alumni, Commerce and Business Administration (1962) and Honorary Doctorate (1998) and have been imbued with Indigenous issues from the age of 14 when I worked at the Namu fish cannery. I got to know the Heiltsuk kids, including my close friend, Alvin Dixon who later became an advocate for residential school survivors.
The point of the lecture series was to highlight the challenges of reconciliation with Indigenous communities as a global challenge. The lecture series got off to a good start in 2016, the first speaker was Charlie Littlechild, who was eminently qualified to tell us where Canada was with regard to Indigenous rights. Then we had speakers from the Philippines,
interview with JOHN BELL
Mali in West Africa, and Alaska who gave their perspectives. I’m happy that the lecture series had served its purpose of bringing attention to Global Indigenous rights, and that it’s become an important annual event at UBC.
My late father, Jack Bell had a strong social conscience and was the lead donor in 1987 for the construction of the First Nations House of Learning, and the lecture series reflected my support for his legacy through the Global Indigenous Rights Annual Lecture program.
When I was Canada’s Chief Negotiator at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, we ensured concepts around Indigenous knowledge were incorporated into negotiating texts thanks to Dan Smith from the Wei Wai Kum First Nation and Karen Snowshoe from Tetlin Zhen First Nation. After my retirement in 1998, I became immersed in Indigenous issues in a variety of my endeavours over the past two decades.
In closing, I reflect that when I went to UBC from 1957 to 1962, there were almost no Indigenous students at UBC. Today, it’s great to see such a large component of Indigenous students. I recently learned that in the Faculty of Medicine in 2024, there are 156 Indigenous students. I’m looking forward to continuing collaboration with CIS on the lecture series and with UBC.
CIS ALUMNI PROFILES
Aiyana Twigg
Kiʔsuʔk kyukyit / Oki, Hu qak ⱡ ik Aiyana Twigg. Niitsítsitapinskasima Sa’tahtaki. Hu n ini Ktunaxa ȼ Wanm uqantik, Hu qaki qaxi ʔakinkumⱡasnuqⱡiʔit. My name is Aiyana Twigg, and my Blackfoot name is Sa’tahtaki. I am Ktunaxa on my mother’s side, and Blackfoot, registered Blood Tribe (Kainai), on my father’s side. I grew up in ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa (Ktunaxa Territory) in yaqit ʔa·knuqⱡiʔit.
I graduated from UBC in 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and double major in First Nations and Endangered Languages (FNEL) and Anthropology. I am currently a Master’s student at the University of Victoria pursuing a Master of Education in Indigenous Language Revitalization.
I am confident in the skills and knowledge that I carry, in which I have travelled to Paris, New York, Virginia, and all across Canada to deliver keynote speeches, presentations, and panels. I can positively say that I would not be where I am today if it were not for the FNEL program, CIS, or AISA. My time in the FNEL program taught me the foundations for language revitalization, while being the former AISA peer advisor encouraged and challenged me to harness my voice for advocacy, enhance my leadership qualities, and the importance of community. Much of the experience I have today is from my time in FNEL and AISA, and I am forever thankful for the
support I received as a student from the staff, faculty, professors, and students in these programs.
Since graduating, I have continued to challenge myself in colonial spaces, while simultaneously carrying forward the teachings and knowledge I learned. I am currently part of the Youth Advisory Group (YAG) for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO), a member of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL) Working Group led by CCUNESCO, and most recently I have been selected to be a youth member with UNESCO’s IDIL Ad-Hoc Group for Digital Quality and Domains. I have been involved in many different language revitalization initiatives within the Ktunaxa Nation and I use technology and media, and land-based learning and teaching, to guide my work. I am passionate about creating safe, accessible, and inclusive spaces for Indigenous languages within digital spaces, while also fostering a sense of community, and empowerment for Indigenous youth to become involved in language revitalization. As an Indigenous youth who grew up on a small reserve, our dreams are never too big or too far. Make big dreams and continue to be passionate about what you believe in!►
Benjamin Chung
Benjamin ‘Ben’ Chung (he / him) is an FNEL alumnus and linguist. He comes from a mixed Ashkenazi Jewish and Korean background and lives on the traditional, unceded territories of x ʷ m əθ k ʷəy̓ə m (Musqueam), S ḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), and s əlilwətaɬ (TsleilWaututh) Nations. In 2020 after graduating with a double specialization in FNEL and Linguistics, he began work at First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) and as a contractor with First Nations regionally helping to develop language curriculum. Ben looks forward to starting a Master of Arts program fall 2024 at Simon Fraser University (SFU), continuing his study of Linguistics.
Reflecting on my time since graduation, much of it is a blur really. I blame the COVID-19 pandemic for this temporal fugue. My final term at UBC is remembered for its quick pivot to online instruction and a reimagining of what university could look like completely remote for the foreseeable future. Sufficive to say, I was relieved to complete my undergraduate degree when I did while slightly anxious for what the future held.
Shortly after graduating, I did begin working remotely for FPCC in the then newly formed Language Technology Program: an amalgamation of the existing FirstVoices and Digitization Grant Initiative programs.
As a former FNEL research assistant under Dr. Mark Turin and no stranger to Ma̓la̓gius Gerry Lawson’s guidance on Indigitization, I found myself in a comfortable niche and ready to support community grant holders in whatever ways they required. When health restrictions eased, I was able to travel and work with communities
in their territories more intensively on specific requested training topics including language data management and storage.
Off the side of my desk and on Zoom, I also continued to support the Urban Haíɫzaqvḷa (Heiltsuk language) Program, including as an instructor for a stint. The program is near and dear to my heart after supporting the great work and community building it fosters since my undergraduate years. I am proud to say we were able later to transition to a fully Haíɫzaqv staff under the direction of recent FNEL alumnus herself, Danika Shaw.
As a non-Indigenous partner and ally in language revitalization, I always have been appreciative of the openness and grace afforded to me in this work and do my best to reciprocate this respect and kindness in these relationships. Whether it has been as a student or guest in the Big House, some of the greatest lessons I learned while working with Elders and from instructors at FNEL continue to be – listen closely, be patient, and be present.
This fall, I will begin a new chapter at SFU to pursue an MA in Linguistics. There, I will continue to collaborate on research areas of interest with Indigenous communities as well as hone my practical skills and theoretical understandings as a linguist. Aside from the stress involved in applying to graduate school last year, there was the silver lining of reconnecting with former professors. I am proud to call Drs. Daisy Rosenblum, Candace Galla, and Patrick Moore now colleagues, some of whom I met first through FNEL courses.
Like with all things, time flavours experience. And, when a global pandemic makes time feel even more ephemeral, it becomes ever more important to remember those formative milestones in one’s journey. For me, these milestones are (and will always be) lessons and the people who teach me them. They will be friends in Wágḷísla, Masset, Anspayaxw, and Xwemelch’stn, future advisors, past mentors, and forever dear ones now moved on.
Looking back at my time over these last four years, I am grateful to have many such teachings and relationships to carry forward. I raise my hands in thanks for these lessons and to those who make the journey meaningful, at FNEL and beyond – wálas giáxsixa, wái! •
AISA Update
Arts Indigenous Student Advising (AISA) in the Faculty of Arts supports the success of new and continuing First Nations, Métis, and Inuit students. The 2023/2024 academic year was filled with events that brought students together for leadership development, social connections, and cultural practices.
Our student peer advisor, Trinity Stephens, continued the work of the Indigenous Mentorship program developing it into a two-term program where a new cohort of students were invited to participate for each term. In each event, upper-year students were paired with new students to UBC, creating a buddy system for support and guidance from a student perspective. Students went on a tour of the Botanical Gardens at UBC and attended Indigenous Fashion Week in Vancouver. The Peer mentorship program continues to grow and evolve as our new AISA peer, Samantha Green, builds on the success of this program to create even more opportunities for academic and leadership training in 2024/2025.
Additionally, AISA partnered with the Institue of Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS) to host several events. Highlights included shared meals and interactive activities during National Indigenous Peoples History Month in June, a Mario Kart Party at CEDaR space, and a pumpkin carving event in the CIS room.
Cultural events coordinated by AISA included a trip to the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre for Pow-wow nights, the Hoobiyee Nisga’a Lunar New Year Celebration at the PNE Forum, and the Women’s Memorial March on February 14th. AISA is grateful to our collaborating partners at the First Nations House of Learning (FNHL), the Sexual Violence Prevention Office (SVPRO), and the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC).
AISA also hosted several smaller events at our office, including a Tea and Bannock event and drop-in workshops with our partners from Career Advising for resume writing and Enrolment Services Advising for scholarship preparation.
In 2024/2025, AISA will move to an entirely new building, marking a tremendous change for our team. We will continue to host events in our new student lounge and look forward to the creative and thoughtful reflection that students will bring to this new space. •
Musqueam Language Program Reflection
The Musqueam Language Program had a busy academic year in 2023-2024 with five courses designed to introduce and promote beginner and intermediate hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language skills held at the Musqueam Community Centre throughout the Winter and Summer terms. FNEL 101, 102, 191A, 201, and 202, which are offered annually, were taught by our team of xʷəyaθənəq̓ (language teachers): sʔəyəɬəq Elder Larry Grant, Grace Point Bassett, Marny Point, and Fiona Campbell, with help from c̓eləwtən Lawrence Guerin, Abigail Speck, and Phebe Point-Speck. In these classes, students from Musqueam and UBC work together to develop proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading, and writing hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, while considering ideas around the connections between language, place, identity, history, relationships, and music, within the cultural and geographical context of the Musqueam Community.
A highlight of this past year was gathering at the Musqueam Cultural Centre to celebrate the accomplishments of the students, share creative projects, and enjoy some delicious food, at our endof-term Community Language Potluck Dinners. These events are a special opportunity for students and community members to connect with hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ learners outside their class cohorts, offer each other encouragement, share words, wisdom, laughter, and sometimes tears, as we collectively take on the challenges of reclaiming spaces for hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, the language of this land.
Looking ahead to September 2024, we are excited to be able to provide students who have completed FNEL 202 the chance to extend their learning into FNEL 301 - Advanced hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, which will be co-taught by Jill Campbell and Patricia A. Shaw. •
GO GLOBAL – NEPAL
Pasang Yangjee Sherpa
The first Go Global Nepal seminar explored global Indigeneities on the ancestral territory of the Newa people, now known as Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, in May of 2024. Students had the opportunity to learn about the rich Newa civilization, tradition, and transformation from the communities in four city centers: Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, and Kirtipur. Students were guided in expanding their understanding of global Indigeneity through an engagement with diverse learning material and an activation of multiple senses. Throughout the course, students read academic and public literature, watched videos, studied artwork, and walked through city centers to understand how the community is practicing self-determination. The objective was to understand relationships between self-determination, cultural survival, linguistic revitalization, and trans-Indigenous solidarities in the nation-state of Nepal. Students produced a paper around their inquiries in global Indigeneities at the end of this research-intensive field-based course. •
Shreya Shah student remark
“This course was a special opportunity to understand what Indigeneity means in parts of the world where it is less frequently spoken about. It has provided me with a greater appreciation for the privilege it is to be able to name and analyze colonialism in the global north. The majority of the world’s Indigenous population is in Asia but many of these countries do not recognize the existence of Indigenous peoples within their borders. Being able to discuss Indigeneity and challenge the state is not an opportunity everyone has. At the same time, despite a long history of ignoring the existence of colonization there is now a strong and growing movement for Indigenous rights. During our time in Nepal, we witnessed countless examples of community resilience that extend across borders and different experiences of colonialism. This shared strength leaves me hopeful for the potential for global organizing and solidarity.”
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Pasang Yangjee Sherpa
The FNIS 401H/501H “Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change” course was first offered in 2024 Winter (2). This course explored Indigenous experiences in the context of climate change across local, regional, and global scales, informed by Indigenous climate advocacy, leadership, and scholarship in paving pathway towards liveable future for all. The course highlighted Indigenous agency, solidarities, and coordination in challenging the ‘epistemology of crisis’ (Whyte 2020) and imagining Indigenous futures. Special attention was paid to the differentiated climate vulnerabilities, risks, agency and capacities of Indigenous Peoples around the world.
In doing so, the course challenged the homogenizing, overly generalized perception and treatment of Indigenous peoples as passive victims in the context of climate change. The reading materials for this course were drawn from Indigenous scholarship in multiple disciplines including anthropology, geography, environmental science, history, linguistics and forestry. Students produced essays exploring key interventions by Indigenous Peoples in responding to climate change. By the end of the course, they were able to identify networks of Indigenous scholars and institutional resources that support Indigenous Peoples in responding to climate change. •
“In discussions around global climate change, there often exists a strong sense of urgency and panic—driven by the belief that environmental and climate change are largely unprecedented. In FNIS 401H, we explored the concept of Indigenous realism—the notion that extreme environmental changes are not novel occurrences, but rather the symptoms of colonial pursuit for power and resources. Things like large-scale land use changes, paired alongside the removal of Indigenous peoples from their lands and waters, has resulted in anthropogenic climate change as we understand it today. With this in mind, the experiences and knowledge of Indigenous communities offer a decolonial approach to the extreme environmental change associated with the climate crisis. The in-depth understanding of the functioning of local ecosystems and climate held within Indigenous languages, protocols, histories, and culture can provide remedies to environmental issues that colonial systems lack or cannot offer.”
Kaitlin Harvey Student remark
TRICIA LOGAN
Interim Academic Director of the Indian Residential
School History and Dialogue Centre
Tell me about your history with residential school research? How did you end up at the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at UBC?
In 2000, I started working at an Aboriginal Healing Foundation-funded project in Brandon, Manitoba, researching Métis peoples’ histories and experiences in residential school. I had recently graduated with a degree in Native Studies from the University of Manitoba and knew my own Métis family’s history at residential school so I worked at the Manitoba Métis Federation, Southwest Region office and was supported so well to do some relatively rare kinds of research. At the time (2000-2001) there were still a few scholars I consulted with who were convinced that only First Nations and Inuit children attended residential schools and who made me feel discouraged in my searches, so it was important to get the support from Métis Survivors and several other scholars. I later went on to work more with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and Legacy of Hope Foundation, including some time at the Métis Centre at the National Aboriginal Health Organization. Often, I worked with Survivors, intergenerational Survivors, language teachers and knowledge holders, who carried teachings of wellness, health and healing. After spending time working at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights as the first curator of Indigenous content and later, working at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, I moved here to UBC in 2019. A lot of the research over those years was driven by work with residential school Survivors and I tried to balance time between those teachings and academic research.
What did research at IRSHDC entail?
The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre has grown and refined its focus in recent years. The Centre is in service to Indigenous communities and especially to residential school Survivors and primarily responds directly to community requests for support. Often, research direction is led by a way we can honour the vision of the origins of the IRSHDC, especially to Survivors who advocated for a Centre to be established in BC, during the time of the TRC. Part of that original vision was to acknowledge the Centre as a place for emerging and new dialogues, with new questions coming up all the time. As one example, dedicated research on Indian Hospitals in BC started in response to Survivor requests for additional records and information on the hospitals. It grew to include both research and curation of a virtual exhibition on the hospitals and ongoing responses to Survivors and former patients conducting their own research on the times at the hospitals as well.
Currently, twenty-one communities in BC are leading their own research on the Missing Children and Unmarked Burials affiliated with each former site of a residential school or Indian Hospital in BC. Collaborative efforts to make records more accessible, provide research support and respond to Survivor requests in response to that research is ongoing, as well.
The team at the IRSHDC meets visitors and faces some relatively huge questions each day, with care, innovation, and a lot of creativity. There are events, gatherings, and dialogues throughout the year but I personally think the day-to-day work that happens at the IRSHDC is the most remarkable. Staff greet Survivors, students, teachers, community members, and Indigenous knowledge holders and there are always great talks, often laughs, care, meals together and a growing sense of what the Centre does to serve Indigenous community members and Survivors. Often, we get asked how we conduct work so closely affiliated with trauma and colonial violence. I think everyone manages the topics and kinds of work in their own ways, but it’s exceptional to see how our colleagues support one another and embody kindness to face the day-to-day kinds of conversations that come up.
Where do you see your research going in the future?
There are have always been ‘imbalances’ in historic narratives about residential schools in Canada. We hear from Survivors quite often about those gaps and imbalances. One of those areas is in the role that the Catholic and Protestant churches played in the operation in the schools and, in particular, the response and compensation eras. The histories of the Churches’ involvement in settler colonialism and the schools in Canada has been documented but still has blind spots to the full picture of how the whole system operated. I will start more research into those histories and contemporary impacts related to the Churches. Misinformed and “denial” narratives often use a short-hand to only point to government and I think research needs to expand to provide a more comprehensive narrative, driven by Survivor testimonies and oral histories. I am also involved in looking at colonial complicity in post-secondary settings and how conversations are shifting from reconciliation to reparations. •
What were your main takeaways from the talk?
Dr. Allen employs a trans-Indigenous methodology, combining inter- and trans-disciplinary insights from Archaeology, Anthropology, History, and Indigenous Studies (among other areas of study and ways of knowing) to analyze the significance of the Serpent Mound and other contemporary earthworks. In this talk, he charted connections between geometrically encoded structures and cosmic patterns. Dr. Allen understands earthwork revitalization as an effort to encode knowledge through land rather than relying solely on semiotics. By exploring earthworks as a form of resistance against settler fantasies of untouched land and ‘manifest destiny,’ he challenges dominant narratives. He upholds earthworks as vibrant symbols of ongoing vitality within Indigenous communities.
In his latest book, Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts, Dr. Allen focuses on contemporary engagements with Indigenous mounds and earthworks. He further highlights efforts to revitalize and reclaim Indigenous cosmologies connected to ‘earthworks’ by centring Indigenous voices and stories. This approach reframes earthworks as living components of Indigenous cultural identity and resistance and emphasizes the role of earthworks in sustaining cultural continuity, community memory, and resistance against colonial erasure.
CHADWICK ALLEN TALK
interview with student attendee Charlotte Taylor
How did the talk make you reconsider the way you view/experience Indigenous art? How about earthworks in particular?
This talk emphasized deep connections between Indigenous art, land, and cosmogonies. Earthworks, in particular, were presented as living symbols of Indigenous resilience and cultural continuity. This perspective encourages holistic engagement with Indigenous art to recognize creative efforts as a dynamic and integral component of living traditions and future imaginaries. For example, Dr. Allen highlighted a specific instance through which children’s art became an embodied component of the land on which the Serpent Mound is situated. Thus, Dr. Allen illustrated how contemporary artistic expressions may be placed in conversation with discussions of Indigenous land sovereignty.
integral role in local agriculture, seasons, and cosmology. By highlighting the ceremonial and practical functions of the mound, Dr. Allen underscored its ongoing significance within Indigenous communities. Furthermore, he highlighted efforts by Indigenous groups and allies to preserve the Serpent Mound, contributing to broader movements to revitalize and sustain Indigenous sovereignty. Efforts to maintain these sites (by both local land and water stewards and community groups /organizations) may thus be seen as acts of cultural and political resistance.
With its focus on mound building at the height of the Red Power Movement, how did the talk make the audience consider Indigenous art as resistance?
Dr. Allen emphasized the relevance of the Serpent Mound to Indigenous cosmology, noting that the site serves as a ceremonial space for rituals, playing an
Ultimately, Dr. Allen’s talk illustrated how mound building and other forms of earthworks are powerful symbols of resistance against the erasure and misrepresentation of Indigenous histories and cultures, promoting Indigenous sovereignty and cultural heritage. This context places Indigenous art and earthworks at the forefront of the struggle for cultural survival and political autonomy. Thus, these efforts are directly linked to the intergenerational goals of the Red Power Movement and Indigenous-led activism. •
CeDAR SPACE
Over the past year, CEDaR (Community Engaged Documentation and Research) has sought to bring technology, culture, and community together in ways that are accessible, creative, and grounded in place. This year, several research-creation projects, blending Indigenous and community knowledge with emerging technologies, have kept us busy while we have also completed our start-up phase, preparing for the conclusion of our CFI grant, which wrapped in September 2024
Community-centred access and stewardship continue to be a core focus for our language reclamation work. Last year, our post-correction method for improving optical character recognition (OCR) in Kwak’wala allowed us to create a machine-readable copy of an important text from 1921 (treasured for its recipes and instructions for cultivating herring eggs, weaving salal-berry baskets, building houses, and more), convert it to the currently preferred writing system, and distribute that to dozens of community users. We’re now improving the process and adapting it to other texts, focusing on legacy dictionaries, with plans to create a user-friendly interface to streamline OCR for non-technical users.
This work was supported by two work-learn students, undergrad Saughmon Bajkian (a speaker of an endangered dialect of Syrian Arabic) and MA-PhD student Ailar Mahdahzideh.
Through Daisy’s longstanding partnership with the Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw Nations, we continue to collaborate with several FNIS and FNEL graduates who are leading language revitalization for Bak’wa mk’ala on Northern Vancouver Island, including Lucy Hemphill, Arynn King, and Jaymyn LaVallee. In June, Daisy and Arynn travelled to Tohono-O’odam and Piipash territory in Arizona
to give a workshop at CoLang 2024 on making and transcribing recordings of conversational speech for language teaching and learning. A related practical manual on Transcription has now been published as part of the Indigitization Toolkit
Working with undergraduate WorkLearn students Cate Ngieng and Kel Freeman, and iSchool MLAIS student Samara Channell, we also completed organization, description, and transcription of several years of recordings of conversation and connected speech with Kwak’waka Elders Beverly Lagis, Spruce Wamiss, Lily Johnny, and others. With support from First Peoples and United Way, and following consultation with speakers’ families and GNN community councils, this collection will be accessible to community members through a cultural archive located in Tsulquate, with a portion of pedagogical materials accessible through the Endangered Language Archive.
Led by Dave Gaertner and Dante Cerron, with support from undergraduate Karla Ssewakiryanga and Mohsen Movahedi, we are wrapping up development of the first phase of the City Poems app. Created with Vancouver poet laureate Fiona Tinwei Lam, City Poems offers an immersive and interactive augmented-reality experience of site-specific poetry
‘installed’ in Vancouver’s geographical and cultural landscape. TLEF Innovative Project funding in partnership with the CTLT Indigenous Initiatives will support continued development of the app along with a Teachers’ Guide applying pedagogical strategies established in the “What I Learned in Class Today” series. We are also continuing to work with Musqueam to develop a locative audio platform for hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ street signs on campus and on Reserve. Last but not least, CEDaR technical lead Dante Cerron and Daisy collaborated with originating communities and a team from the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) to develop an interactive language map for the reopening of the Great Hall, connecting museum visitors with the living communities and languages to which the objects in MOA’s collection belong.
Alongside our research, CEDaR continues to serve as a hub for CIS community-centred events, as well as coordinating broader collaborations through our VPRI-funded Research Cluster in Relational Technologies. A highlight of the Relational Technologies Speakers Series was an artist talk with Marlena Myles in March. A self-taught Spirit Lake Dakota artist, Marlena shared how her art practice combines augmented reality with public art to tell stories connected to Dakota history, language, and land. Her insights into the intersection of art, technology, and Indigenous storytelling resonated deeply with attendees, offering inspiration for how we can further decolonize digital spaces. A special issue of BC Studies focused on Relational
Technologies, guest edited by Daisy Rosenblum and David Gaertner, is due next year.
Last but definitely not least, we co-hosted two new gaming events for our CIS community and AISA. Participants—ranging from first-time players to seasoned pros—took to the tracks on the Nintendo Switch in our Mario Kart Tournament. The Indigenous Pop-Up Arcade showcased a range of Indigenous-made games such as Lisa Jackson’s Biidaaban: First Light and Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna) by Upper One Games, which integrate Indigenous stories and worldviews into interactive gaming experiences. Look for replays of these events in the upcoming year as we continue to celebrate Indigenous creativity and make space for community connection at CEDaR.
Along with the conclusion of our start-up phase, July also brought a change in CEDaR leadership, as David Gaertner stepped back to focus on chairing the CIS curriculum committee. CEDaR would not be what it is today without Dave’s full-stack contributions as a gifted researcher, teacher, colleague – from creating Twine versions of comic books with Stó:lō youth to reviewing budget details in meetings with Associate Deans. Thank you, Dave. We’ll miss you but look forward to continuing to collaborate in the future.•
