UBC MoA & Indigenous Graduate Symposium

2nd Year IST Students at the UBC Museum of Anthropology

On March 11th and 12th, the 2nd year cohort of Indigenous Studies students went over to UBC in Vancouver to visit the Museum of Anthropology and attend the Indigenous Graduate Student Symposium as part of our Indigenous Political Science class.

We had lots of fun cramming ourselves into small vehicles, sharing meals and even hotel'ing it for one night. Late Friday afternoon, after being guided through the museum by a very unlucky UBC 3rd year history student, we packed into a teachers lounge and discussed how it felt to witness indigenous cultures being stolen and sealed behind glass windows. What started as a quick check-in turned into a 90-minute exploration of the contentious ethics and philosophies behind the museum institution. It felt great to be able share mixed feelings of reverence & awe, sadness & anger.

Pushing on into the evening we held a round table discussion of the pro's & con's of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (as part of a previously postponed assignment) and FINALLY, at 8:30 were allowed to eat some food!

Welcoming @ Indigenous Graduate Student Symposium

On Saturday we got down to business and started the morning off with a keynote lecture from Margaret (Maggie) Kovach (author of Indigenous Methodologies), and then we jumped into a series of mini-lectures by grad students.

The lectures were very challenging because each speaker tried to explain their research in 15 minutes with time for one or two questions afterwards. In this format we were sometimes only able to get a vague idea of what each student was working on. In the morning sessions I attended, Dorothy Christian described how she threw out the first draft of her thesis because it sounded too academic and then she adopted an Indigenous methodology. Using the 4 R's (respect, relationship, relevance, & responsibility), she said she was able to incorporate more than just the intellectual aspect of her identity into her thesis, creating something more holistic and authentic for herself.

Donna Lester Smith asked four colleagues of hers "What does it mean to be an urban Aboriginal person today?" and then gave a disposable camera to each person, who was required to report back to her. In the session I attended, Donna showed a beautiful video montage of the photos her friends came up with set to some wonderful music. I wasn't clear on the connection of the video project to her research but the video was very inspiring.

The last morning session I attended was provocatively titled, Berries, Bison and Branches: Returning to Traditional Aboriginal Sustenance. Although Patricia Ann Cundy's presentation covered a lot, two things I'll mention are her framework and a great quote she received while out in community. Berries, to her, is a universal representation of indigenous peoples because many if not all indigenous peoples utilize some type of berry as a food source; bison is an analogy for the shattered remnants of indigenous cultures that have almost been driven to extinction by the effects of colonization; and branches represent the flow of indigenous knowledge and cultural systems out from one source - the earth.

One of the things Patricia said that really stuck out for me was something an elder said to her when she asked the elder to define "health." The elder said something to the effect of: "Health is defined by the number of drummers we have in our community." I found the power behind this statement to be very profound. It breaks down so many western constructs and assumptions. It says health is communal not individual. It says health is not only limited to the physical, but also the emotional and spiritual. It says health is cultural. It basically says that health is connected to everything and it should never be considered in isolation.

Lunch time!

After a great lunch, I actually skipped out on the afternoon sessions so I could sit down with a Secwepemc elder from my own territory named Jean William. I talked with Jean for about 45  minutes or so and learned about her dedication to her community as a language expert and sacred knowledge keeper. She even taught me how to properly pronounce my band name, St'uxwtews.

When I finished talking with Jean, the rest of the class came back from their afternoon sessions and we decided it was time to head for the ferry. Since I had planned to spend the night in Vancouver with my brother, we split up and I said goodbye to the group.

On behalf of our class I'd like to thank Todd Ormiston, Jacquie Green, Trevor Good and anyone else who helped make this trip a memorable experience for all who attended!

-Trevor