PRE-WORKSHOP PREP
Modelling decolonizing practices / learning about local Indigenous Territories
We encourage you to make the acknowledgments heart-felt and personal; to do them in way that meaningfully reflects the importance of naming the traditional territories upon which the workshop is taking place, and situating this practice as part of ongoing work to unsettle deeply internalized colonial relationships to the land and each other.
Check out these sample Territory Acknowledgments with KimMortal + JB The First Lady:
Go to native-land.ca to find out the Territories that you are learning on.
When making land acknowledgements meaningful, authentic and personal, consider adding some of the following:
Brief explanations of the words “unceded” and ‘settler colonialism’
“Unceded” means that this land is stolen; that it was never “given up” via agreement nor treaty.
Settler colonialism is an ongoing system of power that involves the exploitation of indigenous peoples and lands for labor and economic interests, and the displacement of Indigenous people through settlements.
Your own ancestral background/indigeneity- Some of the waysism, iAcknowledging you are a settler (if you are not Indigenous to these lands.who benefits from settler colonial Canada
- How territory acknowledgments are part of your commitment to ‘decolonizing’ work; to unsettling internalized colonial relationships with the land and each other.
Not sure how to make Territory Acknowledgments less of a token gesture?
Get the goods on why acknowledgments matter, and how to make them real and heart-felt: https://raventrust.com/territorial-acknowledgement/
You might also consider screening these videos with your students:
Our Shared Territories: A short film featuring local Indigenous leaders that helps us to dig a little deeper into why Territory Acknowledgments are so important.
Baroness von Sketch, the all-female sketch comedy show, humourously calls out the ‘check-box’ approach to Territory Acknowledgements.
VIDEO + WORKSHEET INTRO
- Turn your page sideways and divide your page like this into 3 columns
- Write one heading at the top of each column: RELATE, RESONATE, CONTEMPLATE
- RELATE is for things you have actually been through too, real experiences you have had.
- RESONATE is for things you share a feeling of from something else in your life, even though you didn’t go through the same thing.
- CONTEMPLATE is for the real differences of experience, things that are just simply different, that can be style, location, likes and dislikes, and it can be things that you have not gone through, or ways your identity is different. And these things, we contemplate
SCREEN VIDEO
- Remind people to fill out their worksheets as they watch the film
- Simple but important: make sure everyone can see the screen easily and the volume is up high enough that all can really “take in” the video.
Before we move on, let’s just get into the feelings, ‘cause at the end of the day that’s what is most real for most of us, most of the time!
First, let’s all take one deep breath in and a deep breath out. Breathing…____in…____ out.
Ok, I’m gonna ask you for some courage here, and it’s going to be different for different people.
Is everyone ready to hear some honest answers?
Write down every answer to the following questions on a poster or white board, somewhere near the diversity brainstorm you did earlier, in the general topics of “emotions” and “body”:
What are some of the emotions you had while watching that?
Did anyone notice any parts of their body tense up or relax?”
What else did you notice?
Close the brainstorm by marveling at how full and diverse we are together, in the past and the present and in the feelings and the experiences. And by thanking them for being so honest.
Okay, let’s take a second here to think about something else, Kim was talking about “colonization” can someone please explain that to us?
Colonization is the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area; the establishing of a colony and subjugation of a people or area as an extension of state power
*if you would like to return to these ideas in a future creative workshop, take the opportunity to snap a photo of the whiteboard with the Diversity brainstorm and Emotions/Body brainstorm up there!
Before we move on, let’s just get into the feelings, ‘cause at the end of the day that’s what is most real for most of us, most of the time!
First, let’s all take one deep breath in and a deep breath out. Breathing…____in…____ out.
Ok, I’m gonna ask you for some courage here, and it’s going to be different for different people.
Is everyone ready to hear some honest answers?
Write down every answer to the following questions on a poster or white board, somewhere near the diversity brainstorm you did earlier, in the general topics of “emotions” and “body”:
What are some of the emotions you had while watching that?
Did anyone notice any parts of their body tense up or relax?”
What else did you notice?
Close the brainstorm by marveling at how full and diverse we are together, in the past and the present and in the feelings and the experiences. And by thanking them for being so honest.
Okay, let’s take a second here to think about something else, Kim was talking about “colonization” can someone please explain that to us?
Colonization is the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area; the establishing of a colony and subjugation of a people or area as an extension of state power
*if you would like to return to these ideas in a future creative workshop, take the opportunity to snap a photo of the whiteboard with the Diversity brainstorm and Emotions/Body brainstorm up there!