http://metronews.ca/voices/opinion/1335149/urban-outfitters-smudge-kit-is-insensitive-cultural-appropriation-for-the-low-price-39-99/

settler info link

Relevant CFP

cfp

OCAP description

homework

So my homework is not going well. I was supposed to find a Dakelh word for "installation" or some such. Of course, duh, there is none. Here is what I have that might work: "yats'uzkih" -- we landed (by boat) and "taba" -- shore. I will have to check a possible dialect issue; these are words from the Nak'azdli dialect, not Dakelh.

Also, hey hey hey!! What about we canoe down to the spot where the Story of the Salmon takes place in April! Instead of final exam!

Hi all, if you have a chance, go down to the Lheidli pavilion at 6th & Dominion. There is a display beside the canoe we might want to emulate or borrow/repurpose.

FN Studies canoe carving course

Edie Frederick and Robert Frederick: "'Astas Story of the Salmon"

Cottonwood canoe at 2015 Canada Winter Games Opening Ceremony

letter, final version

       February 5, 2015

To: Lheidli T’enneh Band Council and Elders Society
Lheidli T’enneh
1041 Whenun Rd.
Prince George, B.C. V2K 5X8



Chief Dominic Frederick, Honoured Elders and Council Members,

We are deeply honoured to be able to work on the project of the installation of “The Story of the Salmon,” as shared and carved by Elder Robert Frederick in 2012.  We are also honoured by his gift of teaching the story and carving to the UNBC students in the winter of 2013, during a First Nations course. Our hope is that the canoe will be officially installed on June 21st 2015 in the Rotunda Art Gallery at UNBC. We will continue working with Elders Robert and Eddie Frederick to properly present the canoe so that it gives both instruction and cultural understanding.

We appreciate the challenges that we face in representing your culture within the University of Northern British Columbia. We hope it is understood that we wish to ensure all information is shared with you throughout the process. We hope that any Elders in the community, who wish to be a part of this process, will feel welcome to be a part of accurately representing this story, for the benefit of the entire community. We wish to be respectful and mindful of appropriate protocols regarding the representation of culture and community, given that each story is a living entity that deserves the respect of the hearers.

We look forward to this opportunity to build a deeper relationship with you and the community of Lheidli T’enneh.

We are also aware that the UNBC Arts Council is currently drafting a formal letter toward the use of the canoe for the duration of the Winter Games to display Lheidli T’enneh culture and the journey of the canoe, as a living being, which represents our continuing relationship and communication.

Respectfully,



Trina Johnson,
on behalf of Robert Budde and graduate students,
ENGLISH 700: Indigenizing Scholarship

Place Theory

Elements of "Place Theory"

 “If a given combination of trees, mountains, water, and houses, say a landscape, is beautiful, it is not so by itself, but because of me, of my favor, of the idea or feeling I attach to it.”

                                                            -- Charles Baudelaire

Place is also a way of seeing, knowing and understanding the world. When we look at the world as a world of places we see different things. We see attachments and connections between people and place [. . .] Here ‘place’ is not so much a quality of things in the world but an aspect of the way we choose to think about it—what we decide to emphasize and what we decide to designate as unimportant. . .                                                                         (Cresswell, Tim. Place: A Short Introduction.

                                                                        Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub., 2004. 11)

           

                                                *****

Epistemology: study of the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.

            Is what we know about a place real?

‘habitus’ 

--socialised norms or tendencies that guide behaviour and thinking.

“the way society becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions, or trained capacities and structured propensities to think, feel and act in determinant ways, which then guide them” (Navarro 2006: 16).

Pierre Bourdieu:

                                                “the habitus is the product of inculcation and appropriation necessary for those products of collective history that are the objective structures (eg, language, economics, etc..) and is able to reproduce the form of lasting dispositions in all organisms (which can, if you will, call individuals) permanently subject to the same packaging, then placed in the same material conditions of existence ”

Habitus is neither a result of free will, nor determined by structures, but created by a kind of interplay between the two over time: dispositions that are both shaped by past events and structures, and that shape current practices and structures and also, importantly, that condition our very perceptions of  these (Bourdieu 1984: 170). In this sense habitus is created and reproduced unconsciously, ‘without any deliberate pursuit of coherence… without any conscious concentration’ (ibid: 170).

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London,             Routledge.

Navarro, Z. (2006) ‘In Search of  Cultural Interpretation of Power’, IDS Bulletin             37(6): 11-22.

                       

******

It seems to me that Canadian sensibility has been profoundly disturbed, not so much by our famous problem of identity...as by a series of paradoxes in what confronts that identity. It is less perplexed by the question Who am I? than by some riddle as Where is here?

                        Northrop Frye, The Literary History of Canada

“It's only by our lack of ghosts / we're haunted.”            

                        Earle Birney “Can. Lit.”

 ******

Henri Lefebvre

Space is nothing but the inscription of time in the world, spaces are the realisations, inscriptions in the simultaneity of the external world of a series of times, the rhythms or the city, the rhythms of the urban population...the city will only be rethought and reconstructed on its current ruins when we have properly understood that the city is the deployment of time.... of those who are its inhabitants (Lefebvre 1967e:10) 

It is a question of discovering or developing a unity of theory between fields which are given as being separate,...Which fields?...First, the physical, nature, the cosmos, - then the mental (which is comprised of logic and formal abstraction), - finally the social.  In other words, this search concerns logico-epistemological space - the space of social practices, - that in which sensible phenomena are situated in, not excluding the imaginary, projects and projections, symbols, utopias (Lefebvre 1974a:19).

Doreen Massey, “A Global Sense of Place”

—1. Place is a process

—2. Place is defined by the outside

—3. Place is a site of multiple identities and histories

—4. A uniqueness of place is defined by its interactions 

                                                (quoted in Cresswell, 74)      

Reporting in Indigenous Communities

http://www.riic.ca/

Banff Center brings you WISE PRACTICE APPROACH.

http://www.banffcentre.ca/indigenous-leadership/library/pdf/best_practices_in_aboriginal_community_development.pdf

Brought to you by,

Nexen!

Still worth a read.

Third Draft of “The Letter"

January 22, 2015

To: Lheidli T’enneh Band, Council, Traditional Chief, and Elders;

Lheidli T’enneh

1041 Whenun Rd.

Prince George, B.C. V2K 5X8

Honoured Chiefs, Elders, and Council Members,

We are deeply honoured to be able to work on the project of the installation of “The Story of the Salmon,” as shared and carved by Elder Robert Frederick in 2012.  We are also honoured by his gift of teaching the story and carving to the UNBC students in the winter of 2013, during a First Nations course. The canoe will be officially installed on June 21st 2015 in the Two Rivers Art Gallery at UNBC. We will continue working with Elders Robert and Eddie Frederick to properly present the canoe so that it gives both instruction and cultural understanding.

We appreciate the challenges that we face in representing your culture within the University of Northern British Columbia. We hope it is understood that we wish to ensure all information is shared with you throughout the process. We hope that any Elders in the community, who wish to be a part of this process, will feel welcome to be a part of accurately representing this story, for the benefit of the entire community. We wish to be respectful and mindful of appropriate protocols regarding the representation of culture and community; given that each story is a living entity that deserves the respect of the hearers. 

We look forward to this opportunity to build a deeper relationship with you and the community of Lheidli T’enneh if that is desirable to you.

We are also aware that the UNBC Arts Council is currently drafting a formal letter toward the use of the canoe for the duration of the Winter Games to display Lheidli T’enneh culture and the journey of the canoe, as a living being, which represents our continuing relationship and communication.

Respectfully,

Trina Johnson

This is where we live. Is this where we live?

ariel: a review of international english literature Vol. 44 No. 4 Pages 1–11

Maclean's article on Canadian racism

Second Draft of “The Letter”. Is this better? Does it include everything it should? Is it concise?

English Department

3333 University Way

Prince George, BC V2N 4Z9

T 250 9611612

F Home Fax Phone

johnson4@unbc.ca

January 24, 2015

To: Lheidli T’enneh Band, Council, Traditional Chief, and Elders;

Lheidli T’enneh

1041 Whenun Rd.

Prince George, B.C. V2K 5X8

Honoured Chiefs, Elders, and Council Members,

We are deeply honoured to be able to work on the project of the installation of “The Story of the Salmon” as shared and carved by Elder Robert Frederick in 2012.  We are also honoured by his gift of teaching the story and carving to the UNBC students in the winter of 2013 during a First Nations course. The canoe will be officially installed on June 21st 2015 in the Two Rivers Art Gallery at UNBC. We will continue working with Elders Robert and Eddie Frederick to properly present the canoe so that it gives both instruction and cultural understanding.

We appreciate the challenges that we face in representing your culture within the University of Northern British Columbia. We hope that it is understood that we wish to ensure that all information is shared with you throughout the process. We hope that any Elders in the community, who wish to be a part of this process, will feel welcome to be a part of accurately representing this story for the benefit of the entire community. We wish to be respectful and mindful of appropriate protocols regarding the representation of culture and community; given that each story is a living entity that deserves the respect of the hearers. 

We look forward to building this important relationship with you and the community of Lheidli T’enneh.

Sincerely yours,

Trina Johnson

pop quiz

Pop quiz: what location is in the picture on your course outline?

Cottonwood canoe promo video

First Draft of “The Letter”. Please comment, guide, help edit/clarify. I tend to be wordy and come across snobby.

First Draft....

English Department

University Way

Prince George, BC V2N5J8

T 250 9611111

F Home Fax Phone

johnson@unbc.ca

January 22, 2015

To: Lheidli T’enneh Band, Council, Traditional Chief, and Elders;

Lheidli T’enneh

4321 First Street

Prince George, B.C. ZIP

Honoured Chiefs, Elders, and Council Members,

We are deeply honoured to be able to work with you on the project of the installation of “The Story of the Salmon” as shared and carved by Elder Robert Frederick. We appreciate the challenges that we face in representing your culture within the University of Northern British Columbia. We hope that it is understood that we wish to ensure that all information is shared with you throughout the process.  We hope that any Elders in the community, who wish to be a part of this process, will feel welcome to be a part of accurately representing this story for the benefit of the entire community. We wish to be respectful and mindful of appropriate protocols regarding the representation of culture and community; given that each story is a living entity that deserves the respect of the hearers.

Please let us know how you would like us to proceed and who we need to meet with in order to begin the work of planning this installation. We look forward to building this important relationship with you and the community of Lheidli T’enneh.

Sincerely yours,

Trina Johnson

(PLEASE NOTE: I LEFT SOME OF THE INFORMATION PLACE HOLDERS IN THE LETTER TO AWAIT PROPER INFORMATION, SO MY NAME APPEARS WHERE IT LIKELY WON’T/SHOULDN’T BE AND A FALSE PC AND NUMBER APPEAR IN ITS PLACE. ANOTHER CONCERN I HAVE IS THAT I DIDN’T ASK SPECIFICALLY WHAT SHOULD/MUST GO IN THE LETTER.)

Poco, Ideology, and FN

Postcolonial Studies tends to see culture and race as a function of ideology. How then is academic manifestations of "First Nations" ideologically determined?

_____________

Ideology is a system of concepts and views that serves to make sense of the world while obscuring the social interests that are expressed therein, and by its completeness and relative internal consistency tends to form a closed system and maintain itself in the face of contradictory or inconsistent experience.

Terry Eagleton, in his book Ideologies, lists a range of meanings:

--the process of production of meanings, signs and values in social life;

--a body of ideas characteristic of a particular social group or class;

--ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power;

--false ideas which help to legitimate a dominant political power;

--systematically distorted communication;

--that which offers a position for a subject;

--forms of thought motivated by social interest;

--identity thinking;

--socially necessary illusion; the conjecture of discourse and power;

--the medium in which conscious social actors make sense of their world;

--action-oriented sets of beliefs;

--the confusion of linguistic and phenomenal reality;

--semiotic closure;

--the indispensable medium in which individuals live out their relations to a social structure;

--the process whereby social life is converted to a natural reality.

“the function of literature is to point out that the sign is not identical with its referent.” --Roman Jacobson 

“A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation.” --Michel Foucault,Discipline & Punish 

“Ideology is the world presented positively unified.” --Trinh T. Minh-ha, Woman, Native, Other 

“Ideology is a ‘representation’ of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.” --Louis Althusser, “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses”

Hi Rob,

And to everyone else joining.
See you in class tomorrow.
Jay.

Autoethnography

Autoethnography

Autobiography: biography of yourself

Ethnography: the study of human cultures

Research, inquiry, self-reflection and writing that investigate personal experiences and identity, and connect this autobiographical story to a wider context of cultural environments, meanings and understandings. Autoethnography privileges process over product and subjectivity over objectivity.

http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095

Interpretive Autoethnography, Norman K. Denzin

Protocol Agreements

Resources – First Nations Protocol Agreements

Assembly of First Nations guide:

http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/fn_ethics_guide_on_research_and_atk.pdf

University of Lethbridge protocol document:

http://www.uleth.ca/governance/sites/governance/files/Protocol%20Document%20(Blackfoot%20and%20FNMI)%20GFC%20Approved%20Oct%207%202013_0.pdf

University of Toronto resource:

http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/deepeningknowledge/Teacher_Resources/Curriculum_Resources_(by_subjects)/Social_Sciences_and_Humanities/Elders.html

University of Albert Law paper:

http://www.law.ualberta.ca/research/aboriginalculturalheritage/intro.pdf

Yukon College protocol

http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/downloads/YRC_FN_Initiatives_no_photos_inside_final_print.pdf

Poco for 700

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage, 1978.

“The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes,

remarkable experiences.” (1)

“My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European

culture was able to manage--and even produce--the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-

Enlightenment period.” (3)

“. . . European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self.” (3)  

l“The Orient that appears in Orientalism, then, is a system of representations framed by a whole set of forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and later, Western empire.” (203)

l“Its objective discoveries--the work of innumerable devoted scholars who edited texts and translated them, codified grammars, wrote dictionaries, reconstructed dead epochs, produced positively verifiable learning--are and always have been conditioned by the fact that its truths, like any truths delivered by language, are embodied in language, and what is the truth of language, Nietzsche once said, but

                        a mobile army of metaphors, metonyms, and anthropomorphisms--in short, a sum of human relations,                                          which have been enhanced, transposed, and embellished poetically and rhetorically, and which after long use seem                                     firm, canonical, and obligatory to a people: truths are illusions about which one has forgotten that this is what                                     they are.

                        Nietzsche, “On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense”(203)

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Bhabha argues that cultural identities cannot be ascribed to pre-given, irreducible, scripted, ahistorical cultural traits that define the conventions of ethnicity. Nor can "colonizer" and "colonized" be viewed as separate entities that define themselves independently. Instead, Bhabha suggests that the negotiation of cultural identity involves the continual interface and exchange of cultural performances that in turn produce a mutual and mutable recognition (or representation) of cultural difference. As Bhabha argues in the passages below, this "liminal" space is a "hybrid" site that witnesses the production--rather than just the reflection--of cultural meaning:

            Terms of cultural engagement, whether antagonistic or affiliative, are produced performatively. The representation of difference must not be hastily read as the reflection of pre-given ethnic or cultural traits set in the fixed tablet of tradition. The social articulation of difference, from the minority perspective, is a complex, on-going negotiation that seeks to authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation. (2)

            It is in this sense that the boundary becomes the place from which something begins its presencing in a movement not dissimilar to the ambulant, ambivalent articulation of the beyond that I have drawn out: 'Always and ever differently the bridge escorts the lingering and hastening ways of men to and fro, so that they may get to other banks....The bridge gathers as a passage that crosses.' (5)

“Increasingly, 'national' cultures are being produced from the perspective of disenfranchised minorities. The most significant effect of this is not the proliferation of 'alternative histories of the excluded' producing, as some would have it, a pluralist anarchy. What my examples show is the changed basis for making international connections. [...] The testimony of my examples represents a radical revision in the concept of human community itself.” (6)

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement of Traditional Aboriginal Territory in British Columbia

Introduction

Recognizing Aboriginal people as traditional stewards of the land is a critical part of demonstrating respect for the Indigenous peoples of British Columbia. An acknowledgement should be made at the beginning of events, conferences, and workshops held in B.C., particularly those pertaining to community and diversity and inclusion-related events. 

There are a variety of ways to acknowledge Aboriginal traditional stewards:

•               A formal Welcome to the (shared) traditional territory by an elder. If possible, invite an Aboriginal elder to share a welcome, song and/or prayer. An honourarium and/or a gift is customarily offered in this case.

•               An acknowledgment of (shared) traditional territory by the host

In the context of Aboriginal cultures, “traditional territory” refers to a specific place within British Columbia and not B.C. itself. Over 30 Aboriginal language groups are represented across B.C.. Traditional territory refers to “this” place, the traditional language group of the area where the event is held. The welcome follows a traditional protocol for Aboriginal nations where people entering another’s traditional territory (language area) would seek permission from the traditional stewards and they would be welcomed to the area through an opening ceremony. Today, non-Aboriginal populations who are not originally from B.C. are also welcomed to the traditional territory for the purpose of the events, and as a part of a continuing protocol, which is maintained and observed through Aboriginal communities.

Suggested Script

“Before going further, I wish to acknowledge the ancestral, traditional and unceded Aboriginal territories of the _____ ([ie. Dakelh]) Peoples, and in particular, the _______________________________ (name of First Nations, [ie. Lheidli T’enneh]) on whose territory we work, live and play / on whose territory we stand.”

http://safeharbourblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/18/acknowledgement-of-traditional-aboriginal-territory-in-british-columbia/ January 7, 2015

Link to UBC website on "aboriginal issues in the classroom"

Ross Hoffman article

Outline

ENGL 700 2015                  Course Outline

January         

5, 7                  --introductions and acknowledgements

                        --self analysis/autoethnography assignment

                        --Lheidli T’enneh language and culture          

12, 14              --self analysis/autoethnography due

                        --First Nations at UNBC

                        --visit by Dr.Ross Hoffman, Chair of FN Studies

                        --locating postcolonial theory and discourse  

19, 21              --Bev Isaac, Director First Natiosn Center UNBC

                        --Jennifer Pighin, Lheidli T’enneh Band Council

                        --place theory

                        --ecocriticism and posthumanism

                        --protocol challenge

26, 28              --visiting scholar Dr. Christine Stewart

                        --theory response #1 (on Smith) due (Jan 26)

                        --Smith, Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2

February

2, 4                  --Smith, Chapters 3, 4 & 5

                        --visiting author Derrick Denholm

                        --protocol development

11                    --Smith, Chapters 11, 12, and Conclusion

                        --protocol development

                        --‘Story of the Salmon’ challenge

                        --theory response #2 (on Kovach) due (Feb 4)          

                       

----Mega Mid-Term Break----

                       

March

2, 4                  --Kovach, Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2

                                    --student seminar presentations

9, 11                --Kovach, Chapters 3, 4, & 5

                        --student seminar presentations

                        --‘Story of the Salmon’ planning

16, 18                          --Kovach, Chapters 6-9, & Conclusion

                        --student seminar presentations          

23, 25              --‘Story of the Salmon’ planning

                        --Decolonization, ‘Introduction’ and Simpson

                                   

April

Mar 30, 1        --Decolonization, Irlbacher-Fox

8                      --self analysis/autoethnography rework due

                        --Khasdzoon Yusk’ut field trip

13, 15              --wrap-up of things we forgot

                        --class party

Syllabus

ENGL 700: Studies in Literature, Culture and Place—

Indigenizing Scholarship

M/W 4:00 – 5:20 PM             Winter 2015

Instructor: Robert Budde                                                      Tel: 960-6693

Office: ADMIN 3016                                                             email: rbudde@unbc.ca

                                   

Course Description

“research exists within a system of power”

                                                                        Linda Tuhiwai Smith

This course will be an opportunity for graduate students to explore issues around First Nations’ traditional knowledges as they relates to postsecondary scholarship. What we will be considering are such topics as settler identity/culture, “autoethnography” (Kovach, 33), decolonization, postcolonial theory, First Nations’ identity, indigenous pedagogy/methodologies, protocol, consent, consultation, Canadian/BC/Prince George identity, cultural studies, posthumanism, privilege, appropriation, place theory, Ecocriticism, local human geography, TEKW, land, institutional cultural, and the ways these systems of thought collide and cooperate. The course will emphasize cooperation, sharing, openness to alternative worldviews, and community relations rather than paper writing. There will be no large essay due. Instead, we will be engaged in self-reflection, collective inquiry, cross-cultural consultation, alternative methodologies, and institutional/societal critique.

In my teaching of the course, I will be inviting a variety of speakers into the class: elders, First Nations Studies scholars, representatives from the Lheidli T’enneh Band Council, and other guests.

While I will be asking students to step out of their comfort zone, I will also be taking those steps with you. Institutions across Canada (and the planet) are addressing these issues with new vigour and Canadian society is going through tremendous upheaval in its engagement with First Nations’ sovereignty. I can think of no other area of inquiry that will prepare you for future challenges inside or outside the academy. The goal will be to make us all better, more grounded scholars and stronger citizens. 

Texts

Margaret Kovach, Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and        Contexts

Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies

Decolonization, Vol 3, No 3 (2014) http://decolonization.org/index.php/des/issue/view/1584/showToc

Assignments/Evaluation

Seminar Presentation---------------------------------------------------------20%

Participation -------------------------------------------------------------------40%

Self-Analysis/Autoethnography (2 x 10%)--------------------------------20%

Theory responses (2 x 10%) -------------------------------------------------20%

Seminar Presentations 20%

You will sign up for a seminar topic and conduct your seminar on a scheduled  day. The seminar will be focused on 1) a literary text, 2) a theoretical text or 3) a praxis issue. The seminar is a demonstration of your research, analytical skills, and pedagogical method. The presentation will be 20 – 30 minutes in length. A summary of your presentation will be due at the end of class.  The presentation will be evaluated on: content; research; level of analysis and comprehension; organization; presentation (speed, audibility, accessibility, visual aids etc.); generation and moderation of discussion.

Participation 40%

At this level of scholarship we will be participating in an exchange of ideas and will be communicating as scholarly peers. I have made participation a much larger part of evaluation in order to accommodate a more indigenous pedagogy in class. Participation in this class will consist of the following: coming to class having read and carefully considered all materials; responding to questions; asking questions; offering thoughtful analysis, close reading, context and interpretation of the primary and secondary materials on the course; listening and being responsive to your peers; and engaging in extra research to inform your reading of the primary texts. As well, specific tasks having to do with community outreach and consultation will contribute to 2 x 10% grades. We will be drafting a consultation protocol for the UNBC Department of English and curating a Lheidli story for a 25^th anniversary installation on campus.

Self-Analysis/Autoethnography 20%

These will be two 5 page documents that will be careful introductions to yourself as your identity relates to such concepts as colonialism, race, culture, and academia. These can be in any form (essay, story, poem, song. . . ). One introduction will be due early in the course, the other at the end of the course. These will be opportunities for you to be self-reflexive and position yourself in your work. For more information on the process of autoethnography see:

http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095

Theory Responses 20%

These will be two 5-page responses to the Smith and Kovach books we will be reading together. This will be an opportunity to engage in some traditional scholarly writing. J

Strict enforcement of plagiarism policies applies to this course. See the UNBC calendar or speak to me if you are unsure as to what plagiarism entails.