Theetryą’ ts’à’ gwiyeh’at choo
By Melissa Frost
Nagoohiindaak, Melissa Frost, is a descendent of Shirlee Frost, her mother Alice Frost and her mother Joanne Njootli. She comes from the Wolf clan/Chʼichyàa from the Vuntut Gwich’in First Nation of Old Crow, Yukon. Melissa is an aunty and a cousin who works for mother earth and our future generations. She has forged a career out of her passion for the arts and community work with youth. Melissa tries to channel traditional teachings and positive, hopeful messages when writing or performing.
The Effects of Colonialism on Indigenous Matriarchal Communities in Canada
By Samantha Davis
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects of colonialism on Indigenous women as well as other members of Indigenous matriarchal communities across Canada. Matriarchy and the importance of mothers and children will be discussed first. Followed by colonization including a brief explanation of the Indian Act and the Residential School policy. Finishing with some of the physical, mental and emotional impacts that forced colonization has had on Indigenous women and their families.
Who I am
By Chera-lee Pottinger
My name is Chera-lee Pottinger. I am Mètis Cree, my family is from Manitoba.
I was the first to be born here in BC and I am honored to be living on the unceded territory of the Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, Hwlitsum, Katzie, Kwantlen, Kwikwetlem, Matsqui, Qayqayt, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, and Stó:lō Nations.
I am passionate about helping our marginalized population find supports. I work hard to give a voice to those who struggle with mental health and addictions, women fleeing abuse, and children in need of secure attachments. I believe in meeting people where they are at and helping them build their confidence so they can achieve their dreams.
Lii Medicin: Gathering Medicine as Research
By Lauren Petersen
As an Indigenous student in a colonial institution, I often feel like an alien. The ways in which I was raised to understand the world around me don’t always align with the expectations I contend with in my studies. I recently had the privilege of participating in an Indigenous graduate student seminar, affording me with an opportunity to explore important themes and issues related to Indigenous research methods and community engagement. This deep dive into Indigenous resurgence within the academy has included important topics such as developing Indigenous research designs, decolonizing the academy, doing research “at home,” and connecting research to projects of self-determination. Gaining further appreciation for the important work being done by Indigenous scholars, traditional knowledge keepers and grass roots organizers has allowed me to identify key components of Indigenous research frameworks and relate them to my own projects in my studies and professional work, locate my research projects within the context of Indigenous research methodologies, identify meaningful connections between my research projects and Indigenous communities and/or organizations, and identify current and potential impacts of my work, with a focus on ethics and working within my own Metis, urban Indigenous, campus, geographic communities and beyond.
bury the competition
By Tawahum Bige
This 4-poem submission is tied tightly to my Dene & Cree ancestry while exploring alternatives to urban colonial constructs on Turtle Island. It connects our intergenerationally traumatic pasts that are also rich & resonant with envisioning for the future that moves beyond merely surviving. It’s about finding healthy outlets for our despair, using those to rise above colonialism and build up our communities without constantly being in trauma-reaction to colonialism.
This means authentically exploring the pain to see where its roots are so they can be tended to with compassion—so much of this work we proclaim “decolonial” will be much easier when we can see ourselves with compassion and still stand up against injustice. This isn’t about demanding a new future but cultivating it by healing our villages, wherever and however they might be.
Judicial Review Hearings:
A Reprieve from Breach Charges for Indigenous Offenders in the Yukon?
by Laurie Schamber
On July 21, 2019, Bill C-75 received royal assent, that implied a shift in the way the criminal justice system operates in Canada. Specifically, it would address the often lengthy and on-going involvement of mostly marginalized offenders in the criminal justice system due to administration of justice offences (AOJO) by implementing Judicial Review Hearings related to AOJO.
Aboriginal offenders in the North and more specifically, the Yukon, have much to gain if these new laws are utilized correctly by both police forces and crown counsels. These new laws under Bill C-75 will not only reduce the number of all offenders charged with and convicted of AOJO’s, but more important, we should see a significant reduction in the already disproportionate number of Aboriginal offenders in the criminal justice system due to AOJO offences.
Society and Parliament have come to recognize that AOJO do not meet the required standard for a criminal offence and have acted. While the success of the judicial review hearings remains to be seen, this is a positive step towards keeping marginalized populations like Aboriginal offenders out of the justice system.
Intact Spirit
by Tawahum Bige
This 4-poem submission is tied tightly to my Dene & Cree ancestry while exploring alternatives to urban colonial constructs on Turtle Island. It connects our intergenerationally traumatic pasts that are also rich & resonant with envisioning for the future that moves beyond merely surviving. It’s about finding healthy outlets for our despair, using those to rise above colonialism and build up our communities without constantly being in trauma-reaction to colonialism.
This means authentically exploring the pain to see where its roots are so they can be tended to with compassion—so much of this work we proclaim “decolonial” will be much easier when we can see ourselves with compassion and still stand up against injustice. This isn’t about demanding a new future but cultivating it by healing our villages, wherever and however they might be.
A Colonial Contradiction: Unchanging Settler Colonial Conceptions of Identity and Property
and Shifting Neoliberal Rationalities
by Thea Copeman-Haynes
As a settler researcher in the area of decolonizing relationships between Indigenous peoples in so-called Canada and its non-Indigenous inhabitants, the purpose of this paper is to further untangle some of the colonial property law and identity rhetoric so that it can be better understood and resisted. Based largely on the research of Indigenous scholars, I show how the neoliberal BC Treaty Process is part of maintaining the broader colonial regime on land through time. I show how contradictory it is for settler society to seemingly value time over land, when indeed this is not the case. Colonial conceptions of land through property law reveal that counter to dominant narratives, colonialism is indeed a structure with tangible aspects, rather than a singular event in time. I show how the colonial state attempts to hide this to enable its survival at the direct cost of Indigenous lives, selfhoods, and livelihoods. This mode of analysis is not new; I write largely to settlers to encourage them to acknowledge, unpack, and resist the modes of domination which we benefit from, and emphasize the vitality of engaging directly the Indigenous authors I reference and beyond.
Atmospheric Haze after Joseph Dandurand
by Tawahum Bige
This 4-poem submission is tied tightly to my Dene & Cree ancestry while exploring alternatives to urban colonial constructs on Turtle Island. It connects our intergenerationally traumatic pasts that are also rich & resonant with envisioning for the future that moves beyond merely surviving. It’s about finding healthy outlets for our despair, using those to rise above colonialism and build up our communities without constantly being in trauma-reaction to colonialism.
This means authentically exploring the pain to see where its roots are so they can be tended to with compassion—so much of this work we proclaim “decolonial” will be much easier when we can see ourselves with compassion and still stand up against injustice. This isn’t about demanding a new future but cultivating it by healing our villages, wherever and however they might be.
Taking on Resurgence
by Tawahum Bige
This 4-poem submission is tied tightly to my Dene & Cree ancestry while exploring alternatives to urban colonial constructs on Turtle Island. It connects our intergenerationally traumatic pasts that are also rich & resonant with envisioning for the future that moves beyond merely surviving. It’s about finding healthy outlets for our despair, using those to rise above colonialism and build up our communities without constantly being in trauma-reaction to colonialism.
This means authentically exploring the pain to see where its roots are so they can be tended to with compassion—so much of this work we proclaim “decolonial” will be much easier when we can see ourselves with compassion and still stand up against injustice. This isn’t about demanding a new future but cultivating it by healing our villages, wherever and however they might be.
Taunạ’i: to join together
by Tamara Aisake (a.k.a Hanisaka)
This painting is about love and healing through community. This piece depicts two spiral waves crashing together. The spiral being an ancient land-based symbol of many meanings. For myself, I refer to it as the Fibonacci sequence or momoa in Rotuman (my indigenous language), context depending. People make their own meaning out of this symbol; it occurs frequently in nature from the quantum-micro to the cosmic-macro level. For this painting, it represents new beginnings coming together, healing through water, riding the waves of life as we collectively heal the universal web.