Presentation
This Open Educational Resource includes four public virtual talks given as part of the Settler Colonialism in Canada: Perspectives, Comparisons, Cases project, which also included a workshop, conference, and a graduate symposium, all of which are leading to publications that gather over fifty researchers and knowledge keepers from a variety of backgrounds.
These virtual public talks took place in the summer of 2022. They were meant to act as an ongoing and living acknowledgement of historical, existing, and possible relationships to the land and on the land. Participants to the workshop, conference, and symposium were invited to view these talks ahead of gathering on the territory of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, and the homeland of the Métis. The talks prepared them to reflect on their relationship to this land, and on good ways to interact and live on this land, even if briefly.
To deepen and further complexify our reflection on possible ways to engage with the land including the physical, aesthetic and political aspects of perception of the land, as well as acknowledge the impact that an image featured on a cover can have, we also sat down with the Métis professor and artist David Garneau to talk about his painting “Conflicting Patterns (Salle River Allotments).” Through the discussion around this painting, we have the chance to ask some questions about the influence of maps on our relationship to land.
Being Together: A Living Land Acknowledgement for oskana kâ-asastêki / Regina functions both as a multimedia repository for these four public virtual talks, interview, and two discussions between the editors, and as a book that holds a version of the words that were spoken and shared through video recordings. It now exists as a resource for anyone coming to, visiting, or living on this territory, or attending virtual events held thereupon. It can be freely shared through a web link, or in PDF form. Videos may be viewed in any context, as long as they are watched as part of this resource.
Being Together—not only with each other, but also together with the land—is at once a resource for reflecting on how we relate to the land, and on how we speak about this relationality. Speaking about the land so often takes place through the ritualized, regularized, unthinking practice of land acknowledgements. The introduction and conclusion present many elements of the editors’ reflection on this practice, beginning with their unease and opening onto an ever-changing manner to adapt to good ways to live with the land and others.
The transcriptions of the four virtual talks feature the words as they were spoken. Only hesitations have been removed to lead to a clearer reading experience, and to allow for a better experience for those who wish to read the text as they watch or listen to the recording. The resulting text holds a spoken voice. Speech conveys information differently than the written word; we hope that many who find academic writing difficult to follow will benefit from the kind of exposition and explanation that speech allows. The transcriptions were done by Alyssa Parker and Ibukun-Oluwa Fasunhan, and finalized by Jérôme Melançon.
The wider Settler Colonialism in Canada: Perspectives, Comparisons, Cases project is led by Emily Grafton (U Regina), David MacDonald (Guelph), and Jérôme Melançon (U Regina). The virtual talks were arranged by Emily Grafton and Jérôme Melançon, and this Open Educational Resource was built by Jérôme Melançon.
