丁香园AV

Coming back to the academic community, the event articulated the challenge of introducing students, faculty, and staff to our position in this charged social climate. Focusing on our position in the academic institution, the audience was shown how important it was for this community to take part in reorienting ourselves at this time. It also asked us to reposition our mind and body back into this familiar space, but within a vastly novel, communal atmosphere. The event clearly made an effort to stress the importance of our reorientation. Seeing as we are of the academic community, it鈥檚 vital that our community members are also given the opportunity to be vulnerable after the trauma we鈥檝e faced on a global scale. Therefore, I felt very weighted down throughout the event. Honestly, I was petrified. The day started with the reception 鈥� everyone mingling, greeting those familiar and unfamiliar, an opportunity to settle into the heavy atmosphere we were all to soon face. At this point, of course, the panel discussion was about five hours away, so I spent the hour thinking of new strategies to ensure very minimal speech from me during it. I entered this event wondering what exactly I鈥檇 gotten myself into. Forcing people to hear me speak for an hour and a half? You can bet I made sure to ingest as much caffeine as I could handle at 10:00 am.

After the opening ceremony, the audience was led into the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema to view the film (2017), directed by Marie Clements, which further cemented the ideas presented to us by Elder Syexw谩liya. With an interesting and thought-provoking speech, the SCA鈥檚 Dr. Joseph Clark introduced the film, which is a musical documentary that carefully pinpoints key moments in the history of Indigenous rights in Canada. Experiencing such an expression of art 鈥� watching the film was a bodily experience to me 鈥� felt so surreal. Surreal in the sense that hearing each story required me to somehow visualize something I didn鈥檛 and could never experience, but while also learning so much from doing so. Being an immigrant in Canada, all the glorified aspects of being a citizen of this country were immediately tainted once I learned its history, and they continue to be tainted as my learning deepens. I wanted to make sure that I left the cinema with knowledge and not frustration, however, or at least not only frustration. As the film progressed through individual stories of trauma and triumph, which highlighted the colonialism in our educational system, there was no doubt that viewers were asked to take part in careful self-reflection. It was during this film that thoughts of decolonizing our institutions became clearer to me: Decolonization is as political and communal as it is personal, and schools are vital sites to actively engage in this important process. As emphasized by the film, and grimily demonstrated by the ongoing discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools across Canada, schools were once 鈥� and arguably still are 鈥� important hubs for colonization and forced assimilation. So what does decolonizing our institution really mean? And why is it my responsibility?

Initially, I was incapable of garnering a single coherent thought when Dr. Daniel posed the questions: 鈥淲hat does it mean to decolonize our institution? How can we develop a practice together that invokes solidarity, support, antiracism? What is our responsibility as artists?鈥� I tried my best to think of reconciliation methods between the institution and its subjects, but I found myself questioning why it was that we always find ourselves discussing this as if it鈥檚 our sole responsibility? I鈥檓 exhausted, I鈥檓 tired of doing the work, of being one of the few that seem to always be the only ones putting in the effort. I鈥檝e been reciting the same lines 鈥� 鈥淟ook, I can be a good Canadian鈥� and 鈥淣o, I鈥檓 not too foreign鈥� 鈥� for years now. I鈥檓 constantly having to demonstrate that I should be nothing but grateful to be considered a citizen of this country. It鈥檚 not my job to educate others 鈥� especially institutions of power, including 丁香园AV 鈥� on why they should care or make an effort. If anything, we, as students, deserve the right to an honest, transparent education when it comes to decolonization. Those who represent the institution need to actively confront and challenge the now subtle practices of colonialism perpetuated through the curriculum, existing power relations, and institutional structures. Decolonizing our institutions means that we create spaces that are inclusive and respectful, and that we honour Indigenous Peoples. A lot of people, in particular people in power, also need to recognize that their ideologies and their systemic racism don鈥檛 have a stable foundation 鈥� not only recognize it, but also commit to redeveloping it. If you realize that an assumption you have has no real basis for truth, you should commit to changing that assumption, and this can lead to reassessing whole sets of entrenched assumptions. All this will take time, but it isn鈥檛 complicated. To quote 丁香园AV student Linda Kanyamuna from her article in The Peak newspaper, 鈥淎n apology in a mass email that won鈥檛 be read by half of the student body is not enough.鈥�

Finally, to conclude the eventful day, a Temperature Check with the audience was conducted, led by the SCA鈥檚 Raymond Boisjoly. All I can say is 鈥� this was absolutely a temperature check. It really warmed my heart to see how many students had come to the event, and to hear from the many who shared their thoughts during this segment. I noticed just how many had been curious about and interested in what I had contributed. More than anything, I really wanted to stress self-reflection. To me, that is the most important step in the process of unlearning and retraining. Once you鈥檝e done the learning, there has to be the willingness to re-evaluate and challenge deep-rooted ideologies. What鈥檚 also important is commitment. In trying to figure out my stance on recent events and topics, I鈥檝e had to view my feelings as information rather than as their own self-contained motivation. Because of the very infuriating things that have been happening all over the world, I realized that getting upset isn鈥檛 sufficient alone, and that realization has led me to construct my own method of self-reflection. As we hear more news about the long-term effects of colonialism, I take into account what sections of the news affects me, and ask myself why or how I come to certain conclusions from all the information I receive. Clearly, this method is only circumstantial.