Here spoken by our Concordia University host Monika Kin Gagnon, chair of the Department of Communication Studies. She will offer opening remarks on Counter-Archives on opening morning, Thursday, June 16.
And here Tiohtià:ke and Kanien’kehá:ka, courtesy of Wahéhshon Shiann Whitebean.
The pronunciation guide is from Concordia’s rich and instructive Indigenous Directions web resource and its Territorial Acknowledgement page.
As the symposium theme of counter-archives, the work of the Archive/Counter-Archive project, and the selection of films and presentations all affirm, everyone involved supports the principles of territorial (lands and waters) acknowledgement. We hope the four days of symposium activities reveal these values and demonstrate the actions a variety of communities are taking to decolonize ways of seeing and speaking.
It’s a serious matter, a long process, and often difficult. However, the spirit of the convivial symposium is not at odds with work at hand. As the Concordia annotation puts it: “Delivering a Territorial Acknowledgement is serious business but it is not intended to be delivered like a funeral address! Indigenous cultures are to be celebrated. It is perfectly fine to deliver an Acknowledgement in a more upbeat manner.” And so we shall!
Here’s the full video with Donna Kahérakwas Goodleaf (Director, Decolonizing Curriculum and Pedagogy) and university president Graham Carr.
#orphans2022
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