Workshop: Unsettling ourselves: Decolonization for non-Natives
-
Date
Thursday, March 24, 2011
-
What
This workshop comes from an understanding that colonialism is not an issue for Indigenous people alone to deal with. It encourages non-Native people to see the ways colonialism is all around us and within us - and how to deconstruct and transform both social relations and the many layers of colonialism within our hearts and minds.
In more detail, this workshop employs interactive discussion, historical documents, treaty texts, ma...ps and images to explore the history of colonization around the Great Lakes, the ways in which non-Native people are signatories to treaties which are currently being broken (and the responsibilities carried therein), and the ways colonialism impoverishes everyone's relationship with the land and each other.In particular we will look at treaties governing the Haldimand Tract, promised to the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations), the Culbertson Tract, promised to the Kanienkehaka (Mohawk), the Nanfan Treaty, the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Two Row Wampum, and the treaties governing the Saugeen watershed and the Bruce (originally Saugeen) Peninsula.
This process will uncover many ways our language and sense of place is altered by colonial histories, and will help us track our personal histories throughout the last few centuries of colonialism. In particular participants are encouraged to think critically of what it means to identify as a Canadian, as opposed to other older sources of cultural heritage.
Most importantly, this workshop will look at decolonization strategies being implemented by different Indigenous nations, and highlight examples where non-Native people participated as allies in these efforts.We will look at both social decolonization and personal decolonization, with an emphasis on insights and understandings that participants can integrate into their personal lives.
Facilitator BiographyMatt Soltys lives in guelph, ontario, and is active in environmental justice, food security, and anti-colonial movements. he is also a father, a naturalist, former organizer with the indigenous peoples solidarity movement, and producer of healing the earth radio.
Brought to you by OPIRG Guelph -
Where
OPIRG office, 1 Trent Lane, Guelph ON
-
When
Thursday, March 24
6:00pm - 9:00pm
-
Cost
Free
-
More information
