A Conversation on Language, Land, and Stories
Friday, May 21: 2:00 PM PDT / 10:00 PM BST | Saturday, May 22: 2:30 AM IST
Host: Daniel Heath Justice, University of British Columbia, Canada
Speakers:
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- Bernard C. Perley, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia
- Larry Grant, Musqueam Elder and Musqueam Language Program
Event Description: Our conference events held in Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver) began with an official welcome from Musqueam First Nation Elder Larry Grant, who told us a little about the Indigenous history of the unceded territories that the University of British Columbia now sits upon. In the short documentary, Writing the Land (Dir. Kevin Lee Burton, 2007), Elder Larry discusses the meaning and importance of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language, and the vitality of Musqueam traditions and ways of knowing the landscape, in the heart of Vancouver city. Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada, you may stream this remarkable film (7-min) anywhere, anytime. Join us today for a live conversation, hosted by Daniel Heath Justice, a member of the Cherokee Nation and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Literature and Expressive Culture at UBC, with Larry Grant and Bernard C. Perley, who is Director of Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC, and a member of Tobique First Nation.
View the film Writing the Land:
Writing the Land, Kevin Lee Burton, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
Seals, Ships, Oil and Water: Film as an Indigenous Intervention in Crisis
Friday, May 21: 3:00 PM PDT / 11:00 PM BST | Saturday, May 22: 3:30 AM IST
Host: Molly Doane, University of Illinois Chicago, USA
Speaker:
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- hagwil hayetsk / Charles R. Menzies, University of British Columbia, Canada
Event description: Gitxaała Nation, an Indigenous community on the north west coast of North America, is a marine community. In fact one rendering of our name is people of the saltwater. The current crises of ecology and capitalism reinforce longstanding issues of economic and social marginalization. In truth Gitxaała has experienced two centuries of crisis. The current moment is not exceptional. The arrival of ḵ’amksiwa̱h (settlers) ushered in an era of disease: small pox, measles, flu, that ravaged our Nation. Then followed the social crises of displacement and marginalization caused by colonialism. This was compounded by economic disruptions. In the past two decades Gitxaała has taken a more militant revanchist approach to asserting authority and jurisdiction over it’s own lands and water in the face of expanding energy extraction and transport (oil and gas exploration and transport). Film has formed a small part of the tactical arsenal. This presentation will screen four short films, fragments actually, that have been produced over the past two decades.
Films: Touring Shell Corp; Smoking Salmon; Seals for Dinner; Naming the Harbour
Protect, Film Screening and Conversation with the Director
Friday, May 21: 4:00 PM PDT | Saturday, May 22: 12:00 AM BST / 4:30 AM IST
Host: Candis Callison, University of British Columbia, Canada
Speaker:
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- Deidra Peaches, Diné, Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Producer/Editor, Paper Rocket Films
Event description: Join Host Candis Callison, from the UBC School of Journalism, Writing and Media and Tahltan First Nation, with Diné Filmmaker Deidra Peaches for a debrief and Q&A session about her fabulous new documentary Protect, which documents 24 Indigenous community members and allies as they caravan across the US on the 2016 Protect Our Public Lands Tour. Indigenous land defenders are on the front lines of fossil fuel extraction all across our un/predictable world, and we’re very excited and grateful Deidra has agreed to be in conversation with us. Don’t miss it!
Speaker Bio: Deidra Peaches is a Director, Producer, Indie filmmaker, Editor, and Writer. In 2009 her documentary Shimasani debut at the Imaginative Film Festival in Toronto, Canada. In 2011, Peaches Produced and Co-Edited The Rocket Boy (2011), an official selection at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, which led Peaches and Jake Hoyungowa (cinematographer) to co-found the independent media company Paper Rocket Productions. In 2013 Paper Rocket Productions released, Tó éí iiná át’é (2013), which premiered in Paris, France for the Festival Ciné Alter’Natif 2012. In 2020, Peaches documented the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic among the Dine’ (Navajo) populations in the southwest.
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