Indigenous learning series happening now

Hear from Canadian authors and thought leaders during the popular lunch hour speaker series, Learning with Syeyutsus.

The speaker series, a partnership between Vancouver Island Regional Library, Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools and UBC Press, showcases topics like the true history of Canada, Indigenous self-determination, and language as a way to help spark conversation and deeper learning.

The series launched in January and will run until June 21. Click on the link below to register for a talk, watch past recordings, or find a screening near you. You can also borrow the authors' books through your library.

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What We Learned: Two Generations Reflect on Tsimshian Education and the Day Schools

When: March 29, 12-1 pm PT

Tune in to hear from Helen Raptis, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria and author of What We Learned: Two Generations Reflect on Tsimshian Education and the Day Schools.

In What We Learned, two generations of Tsimshian students – elders born in the 1930s and 1940s and middle-aged adults born in the 1950s and 1960s – share their recollections of attending day schools in northwestern British Columbia. We will hear their stories and be invited to consider traditional Indigenous views of education that conceive of learning as a lifelong experience that takes place across multiple contexts.

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Our Tellings: Interior Salish Stories of the Nlha7kápmx Peoplek

When: April 12, 12-1pm PT

Darwin Hanna, a Nlha7kapmx and a Lytton Indian Band member and author, will speak to the collection of  traditional oral narratives, from over 20 story tellers, which have been passed from generation to generation for centuries.

Many of the stories Darwin will share were told in the original Nlha7kápmx language and have been carefully translated to retain much of the colour and detail of the original, including the rich dialogue so often missing in translations.

It is their hope that through sharing these stories, they will inspire others to continue to create stories and to contribute to the cultural revitalization of Canada's Native peoples.

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Topic: The Creator’s Game: Lacrosse, Identity, and Indigenous Nationhoodl

When: April 26, 12-1pm PT

While the game of lacrosse was being stripped of its cultural and ceremonial significance and being appropriated to construct a new identity for the nation-state of Canada, it was also being used by Indigenous peoples for multiple ends: to resist residential school experiences; initiate pan-Indigenous political mobilization; and articulate Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood on the world stage.

Tune in for this talk with Allan Downey. Downey is Dakelh, Nak’azdli Whut’en, and an associate professor in the Department of History and Indigenous Studies Program at McMaster University. He also wrote the book, The Creator’s Game: Lacrosse, Identity, and Indigenous Nationhood. 

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Incorporating Culture: How Indigenous People Are Reshaping the Northwest Coast Art Industry

When: May 10, 12-1 pm PT

Fragments of culture often become commodities when the tourism and heritage business showcase local artistic and cultural practice. Frequently, this industry is developed without the consent of those whose culture is being commercialized. Author and cultural anthropologist Solen Roth asks what does this say about appropriation, social responsibility, and intercultural relationships? And what happens when local communities become more involved in this cultural marketplace?

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Making and Breaking Settler Space: Five Centuries of Colonization in North America

When: May 24, 12-1pm PT

How have settlers used violence and narrative to transform Turtle Island into what is currently North America? What does that say about our social systems, and what happens next?   Adam Barker employs analytical tools from diverse disciplines, and draws on sources ranging from archives to pop culture and personal experience to answer these questions.

Adam Barker is a settler Canadian from the territories of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe people, author and an adjunct research professor with the Indigenous and Canadian Studies Program at Carleton University.

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The Solidarity Encounter: Women, Activism, and Creating Non-Colonizing Relations

When: June 7, 12-1 pm PT

Join us in conversation with Carol Lynne D’Arcangelis as she shares aspects to a key problem: colonizing behaviours that result when white women’s self-interests take centre stage as they participate in activist work with Indigenous women and groups.

Carol Lynne will share a framework for developing non-colonizing solidarity that can be applied in any context of unequal power.

Carol Lynne D’Arcangelis is an associate professor of gender studies at Memorial University and an author.

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Adjusting the Lens: Indigenous Activism, Colonial Legacies, and Photographic Heritage

When: June 21, 12-1pm PT

Join Sigrid Lien and Hilde Wallem Nielssen as they talk about the role of photography in contemporary renegotiations of the past and in Indigenous art activism. In moving and powerful stories, Sigrid & Hilde will analyze photographic practices and heritage related to Indigenous communities in Canada, Australia, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the United States. 

Sigrid Lien and Hilde Wallem Nielssen wrote Adjusting the Lens: Indigenous Activism, Colonial Legacies, and Photographic Heritage.

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Interested in watching these event with others or discussing what you’ve heard? Vancouver Island Regional Library is hosting screenings and discussions to support the Learning with Syeyutsus speaker series. 

Find an event near you

Vancouver Island Regional Library   |    90 Commercial St. Nanaimo BC  |   communications@virl.bc.ca