 Breath, breathe, we breathe and see one another. Take that time right now. Breathe, look around the room, see one another. Unless your ancestors, bones, lie in this place, we all come from somewhere else. All of us. We've all arrived here. Some of us have settled more than others. Some of us have arrived on ships. Some of us by foot. Some of us by blood. The sky knows some of us more thoroughly than it does others when we are in this place. That doesn't mean that we are not welcome. It means that our place here on this land carries a responsibility. In the same way that when you walk into your grandmother's house, your boss's office, your classmates, your lover's bed, we all carry within us a responsibility to be good visitors. I've lost my language along the way. There are things that I used to know that I forgot. But there are things and ways of knowing that my bones know that my blood knows. And all of us have this knowing in us. Whether we recognize it or trust it, it exists. I was taught a long time ago in ceremony in the prairies that there are grandfathers that sing and whisper and speak to us, but we have to learn how to listen. Because in your hand is one of those grandfathers. I went to the lake on our behalf and I asked the grandfathers for help. I told them that there was going to be a room of people that may or may not know who they are. They may or may not understand the responsibility to be a visitor in this place on this land, under this sky. And would they consider coming with me and helping us to remember knowledge? In your hand is a way of knowing that your bones may have forgotten. Take a moment. Breathe. Hold that knowledge in your hand. Feel it warm. Your blood. Breathe. The people whose land we're visiting, they don't owe us anything. We've walked through these doors uninvited, all of us. We've chosen to make ourselves present. We've decided for people who aren't present that we are deserving of being here. We've made money. We've driven. We've flown in planes. We've made sacrifices to be here. But it's not your right to be here unless your ancestors' bones lie under the ground. You are owed nothing. And in that lies one of the grandfather teachings of humility. There is no shame that's necessary. There's merely an understanding of what our place is. That's all it is. It's a relationship that we have to ourselves. It's a relationship we have to ancient knowledge that we're all holding in our hands right now. Like it's no big deal. Breathe. We breathe and see one another. Or we don't. Breathe. We breathe and see ourselves. Or we don't. You all have names. The rock in your hand has a name. If you're lucky it will speak it to you. Breathe. Listen for just a minute. Receive. So my question is, how are we being good visitors? How am I being a good visitor? Whenever I enter a new space, a new room, a new circle, a new land or territory, a new body of water, in what way are you able, am I able to honor the relationship that exists, which is that I may or may not, I may or may not remember what I'm supposed to know. My father taught me a long time ago two things. He said, when you come to a new land, if you don't know who you are and if you don't know who the people are, find a rock. And I remember asking him, why a rock? And he said, because we're prairie people, we don't have a lot of trees. So you find a rock, he said, and you hold on to that rock and you ask that rock if you are welcome, if you can come and stay for whatever period of time that you're there. And the rock will ask you, what are you going to do to make this place a better place when you leave? In other words, he said to me, how are you going to be a better visitor? And I said, well, I don't know, how am I supposed to know that? And he said, well, part of it is because you've been invited there maybe or you're on holidays or you know somebody. So maybe you're there to visit, maybe you're there to teach, maybe you're there to receive teachings, maybe you're there for ceremony. So you just let that stone know what it is that's brought you to this place. So take a moment, breathe, close your eyes if you need to. Add your knowledge to the knowledge that sits in the palm of your hand. Why are you here? No, really, why are you here? Are you here to take? Are you here to save? Are you here to share? And only the stone needs to know. Breathe, breathe and see yourself. Whether you can hear it or not, the stones are asking, what are you here to do and answer that question? No one needs to know just the knowledge that exists in your hand. What are you here to do today, this week, while you're here on this land? We breathe and we see one another. Take a moment, look around the room, feel how the looking is different now that you have been seen. The other thing my father taught me, I mean he taught me a lot of things, but another thing that my father taught me was when you forget who you are, you go to a tree that tree knows more than you can even imagine. And our tree nation are memory keepers. So when you don't remember, when you feel ungrounded, when you do that with your head, he says you go to a tree and you ask that tree to help you. And you'll feel it, you'll be like, no, not the tree. So you wait, you find that tree and you ask that tree to help you. And when the tree gives its consent, you hold that tree. He says as much as you can, you hold your heart against that tree until you remember who you are. So today you've given knowledge, added a layer of knowledge to ancient knowledge that sits casually in your hand with a lot of power in this room right now. I don't know if you can feel it. And at some point, whether it's today or tomorrow or the next or the day you leave, at some point I would like to invite you to take the promise that you've placed in this stone of what you're here to do as we say, the work that you're here to do in a good way. And I'd like you to feel that promise by returning it to the land. If you can go down to the water, even better. But take that time, make that time, carve that time, go together. Ask each other, what did you do with your stone? I don't know, I didn't do anything. Again, there's no shame, there's no blame, but there is responsibility. So I invite you to enter into that space of responsibility inside all the other responsibilities that you have. And they are legion. I'm a single mom, I know, they're legion. It's okay. Take that time to give yourself ceremony. Take that time to breathe, to see yourself, to see the land, to see this place that you are being given to by, that you are taking from, that you've not been invited to. That owes you nothing. And remind yourself with a promise of what you are here to do in a good way and give that back before you leave. And if this whole time you've said nothing to the rock because you don't know that's okay, let the rock sit beside your bed when you sleep. At some point it will arrive. Why are you here? What are you here to do? And when that knowledge arrives, give it back. Let the land take care of it, let the land carry all those burdens, giving all that taking for you. And when you don't know who you are, there's some trees on this campus. They're pretty great trees. They're not like West Coast trees, but they're pretty great trees here. So if you see people hugging trees, it's a good thing. It's doing things in a good way. Breathe. We breathe and we see ourselves. We breathe and we see one another. We breathe and we know, even when we forget. Thanks so much, Lisa. You know when we first, in the earliest conversations we were talking about this conference, there were a couple of things that we very badly wanted to do. And one of them was that we felt that it was imperative that we address land acknowledgement, which of course is happening all over the place now. But everybody in this room, of course, would acknowledge that land acknowledgement is a kind of performance. And some of them are more compelling than others. And I would say some of the less compelling ones lack a sense of real presence, of sincerity, and of humility. And it's interesting that those are virtues that when you're teaching an acting course, those are things that you try to emphasize. But they have been lacking very often from the performance of land acknowledgement. And I guess I want to thank Lisa and Jen for modeling those, for teaching how to do that first. The other thing that we were sure of right from the beginning was that we wanted to have this event here at the Isabel Bader Center. It's a beautiful building, of course you've seen that. But in my opinion, one of the superb things about this building is the sensitivity which went into its design with respect to its place, where it's situated in the landscape, its relationship to what's all around it. And there's a lot to notice about that. But I won't talk about it. Instead what I would like to do is introduce Tricia Baldwin, who has been a terrific friend to us, a great friend to the dance school of drama and music, and a great friend to CATR for this conference. They've been incredibly supportive. So Tricia, would you like to come up and just say a few words about the Isabel? So Tricia Baldwin is the director of the Isabel Bader Center for the Performing Arts. Welcome everybody to this wonderful House of Dreams. And it's the home of music and drama and film and multi-disciplinary arts. And the future home of the Cataraokwe Festival for the Indigenous Arts that has been curated by Dylan Robinson. And Dylan's also working on a soundings exhibit with the Agnes-Etherington Gallery. So we feel very privileged to be here. And this center does have a wonderful soul about it. You see that the name is Bader. And Alfred Bader actually escaped from Nazi Europe through the Kindertransport. He went to England and then to Quebec. He went to apply to a university in the 40s and was told at a Canadian university, we filled our Jewish quota. Imagine escaping Nazi Europe and hearing that. He came to Queens and he was welcomed. And I think this was the first time in his life that he actually saw a future for himself after a tragic beginning. And many people do well in the world, but to Lisa's point, not everybody gives back. Sometimes they take, but Alfred is a person who actually did give back from such a tragic start to his life. He did give back and he did give back in a very transformational way. And as a result, this wonderful center, it's about 90,000 square feet, $72 million building. Every single room actually suits the art form and was acoustically built for the art form. And our students get to work on state-of-the-art equipment in a beautiful acoustic. We welcome the best artists in the world. We really have a big commitment to have a diversity in our programming and just a global look at the arts. We've championed Human Rights Arts Festival so that people can tell their stories. And I think that artists are just such powerful agents of change. And I know that's what you're going to be talking about at this conference. But any ideas that you have about powerful agents for change, please let me know because we're really growing so much here. And it's because of the great work that we're doing with people like Dylan and Lisa as well next year and beyond. And I just wish you the best conference ever because I know you're going to have a very engaged time at the center. So welcome and thank you very much. I have never received flowers from the stage. This is amazing. I'm not an actor by training. This is marvelous. Okay, I'm done now. Moving on, I would like to introduce Kim Solga, who is the general editor of Theater Research in Canada, and Tric is the sponsor of our keynote this morning. Just one moment. I was afraid Jen was going to have a password on here. Did the screen go to sleep? Showing here. There we go. See, that's why you got the flowers from the stage, Jen. Thank you so much to Jen and Craig for allowing me to occupy the stage for just a moment. And thank you to Lisa for that wonderful lesson in land association and connection. I really appreciated it. Jen noted I'm the general editor of Theater Research in Canada and we are sponsoring this session. It's a tremendous honor to do so. I just wanted to take a moment to let everyone know that our latest issue, the cover of which you see on screen, is about to be released. I'm really proud of this issue. I'm excited about it. It has, general issues don't really have themes, but this one sort of does. It's about teaching and mentorship and learning, both about writing and also about the way we teach and the way we engage with the texts in front of us from a variety of perspectives. It's got a couple of very senior scholars in it and a number of graduate students or recent graduate student scholars in it. So it takes the full spectrum of our work as scholars into account. And I really had a lot of fun writing the introduction just to reflect. It was an opportunity to reflect on my own experience learning how to edit. So I'm very happy to be inaugurating this issue, I suppose here. I want you to look for it in your inboxes soon if you've opted into digital but not print. If you have opted into print, please enjoy the print issue. And I just want to remind everybody that this is the first issue where we are actually going primarily digital in an effort, among other things, to redirect some of our not particularly fulsome resources away from the cost of cutting down and printing on trees and towards using our resources for human resources, spending more money on very much needed editorial assistants, very high quality editorial assistants and also creating some more digital stuff that you'll be enjoying on the website soon. Our web leader for this issue is actually one of our forum pieces reporting from the post margins, which is a fantastic report on the post marginal symposium that took place last April. It's a joint production of Natalie Alvarez, Rick Knowles and the Modern Times Theatre Company. It's in the issue obviously but it's also online with connections to gallery of photos, to video and other things. So please look out for that soon and thank you so much for reading and supporting theatre research in Canada as we continue to move ahead into the brave world of digital. It's now my tremendous pleasure to introduce Jill Carter, who is going to introduce Dr. Doline Tisawiyashi. Doline, have I said that correctly? Tisawiyashi Manning. Thank you very much. Oh, wait. Apparently Marlise is coming first. Is Marlise coming first? Marlise is coming first. All right. Sorry about that. Hang tight ladies. Here we are. Hello and sorry and apologies. My name is Marlise Schweitzer. I'm the president of CATR and I just wanted to take a moment to welcome you to this conference. I also want to really acknowledge the incredible work that Jen and Craig and your huge teams, your M teams, your local arrangements committees, your programming committees, all of your committees have done over the last year because I know you were on the stage or on the stage in Toronto a year ago and the planning had already begun. Thank you so much for that work and it's amazing to be here at the Isabelle having heard so much about how beautiful the Isabelle was and yes, advertising is true. This is a really big year for CATR, not just because we are here at the Isabelle but also because we'll be voting on incorporation at our AGM this coming Thursday. And hopefully you've had a chance as members to review those documents. I encourage you to do so if you haven't already. But please do attend the AGM if you can. Lunch will be provided as part of that and take part in what will surely be a really critical moment in our association's history. I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the many important conversations that have been happening in our field over the past year or so with respect to revelations of sexual harassment and misconduct. These have been incredibly difficult, necessary conversations and I know that they will continue for months and years to come. And as part of a larger effort to address these issues, the CATR board which is members of elected representatives or directors we have been undertaking a number of actions and this is an acknowledgement of important critiques by scholars like Sarah Ahmed who have pointed to the problem with statements that are non-performative and that statements that purport to do something but don't actually do it. And so we are really aware of that critique and are hoping to take actions that actually transform. And so some of these actions we've taken include the formation of a committee on conduct led by Erin Hurley with Roberta Barker and Kim McLeod. You'll hear more about their work at the AGM as well as yesterday the board affirmed statement of values which so you'll also hear a little bit more of that at the AGM as well. For now I just want to highlight two other events that that committee has coordinated. On Wednesday May 30th there's a workshop on sexual violence and harassment recognition response and prevention and then on Friday June 1st we'll be hosting a round table and discussion session on misconduct in theater studies practice and training. So please check the schedule for the times and locations for those events. Some of them have limited numbers of spots but please do attend if you can. And these events are just the beginning of what we hope will be at least a minimum of three years or more conversation and the way that CHR is hoping to you know consult with our members and engage in the years ahead. Finally just want to let you know if you want to know more about what the CHR board does we will be having a table upstairs just near the entrance. Various board members will be sitting there throughout the conference so please come and chat with us. If you're considering you know maybe at some point I want to be a board member. We have elections coming up you'll hear more about that soon at the AGM and so forth. Come and chat with us learn more about how you can become involved with the association. We only run because you know you are here supporting us. So just to conclude let me again just want to reiterate my thanks to Jen and Craig and your team and I hope you all have a really wonderful CHR conference. Thank you. It comes Jill. I'm just going to set up her tech. Annine Sego, welcome. My name is Jill Carter and it's a great honor for me to introduce my Niji, my good friend Doline Manning. I'm not going to spend too much time on her bio or her introduction because it is in your program schedule and we're running late they tell me. So I want to give her the platform because we've come here to see her. Doline has recently graduated with her doctorate from the University of Western Ontario in critical theory and she's going to tell you all about her work which is just amazing and crosses so many intersections. So without further ado, please welcome my Niji, Doline Manning. I'm going to say thank you for having me. Both my computer and this computer don't have room here, so I usually write a tremendous amount before I come to give a talk, and I'm lucky if I get even to reading a one page. So I've left my computer over there off to the side of a feeling need that maybe there needs to be a more theoretical substance to support me. So I'd like to say thank you for having me here, for being on these lands, for the people of these lands. Lisa, I really was moved and loved that your presentation, thank you. I'm holding that ancient knowledge right here in my hand. I also, I'm not sure if I have it on me, it might be in my purse. I only have the one on me right now, I've one for Lisa also, but I want to give this to Joe Carter here. I've known Joe for a few years now, but not really well. We see each other from time to time, but it's been really a fantastic being together, really. And we're sharing a room, so it's a really good thing that we're both beautiful women. Because otherwise, we're both from the Three Fires Confederacy. I'm sure this morning we would have broken that peace treaty, fighting over who gets to use that bathroom. I conceded to her. So Joe gave a really fantastic land acknowledgement yesterday. I was able to attend and she talked about that red cloth, part of payment for these lands. So I have had these stones on me for over 20 years. They only come from one place in the States. I went down there, maybe it makes no difference what I went down there for. But those are those stones, they're medicine stones. And they're formed in the water, the way the water moves. And the red clay that's there, they can create these perfectly round medicine stones. And we know that the rocks are alive. And so I've had those things and I brought them all up really because I want to acknowledge my niece, Summer Cat. She's right now, she's out in the bush and put out for a fast. And so she's making a commitment to the people. She's going out, she's becoming a jingle dress dancer. And so when I couldn't be there, I was so sad I couldn't be there. And she was sad she couldn't be here. But we're there for each other. It doesn't matter our distance or the time between us. And when I touched that stone, I sent her one. And I was right away, I knew that was for her. And I was the same way, you know, when Joe was giving that talk, I knew this stone belonged to her. And like, so those things they don't, like we don't have ownership, let's say. We use those words, but they're particularly in English. We assume that it's innocuous, that it's a bridge in language, but it's not. We have to be mindful that it's a colonial language and it was imposed on us. So that even though that is the language, that is my first language in a sense, my mother was the first language, Ojibwe and Schnabem and Speaker. And so she taught me how to speak in English. And she taught me what those words and what those concepts mean. And it took me 40 years to realize that although I use the English language, that I'm actually, I'm not speaking in English. I'm speaking in the sense that I understand those languages, those concepts very differently. And those of you who come from that tradition, that history, that language, those languages, those European languages, and that philosophy comes along with it. You have a deep understanding, even if it's not on a conscious level, you have a deep understanding of the philosophical implications. And those things are, for me, they're at a distance. And many that I've yet to uncover. But in a like sense, having been taught by a first language speaker, that I have this other philosophical affiliation, I'll say, with the Schnabem one. And for me that's a way of being. And so, yeah, this stone is like those words in this philosophy. They're alive. And so we have, it's really important this initiative for language preservation and cultural indigenous cultural language preservation. And I fully support all the various methods that are being taken up in that regard. And whether that's through written language, there's lots of things that are now digital. But I also want to emphasize the necessity for indigenous communities to have access to funding to support those traditional ways of transferring knowledge, which is in community with other Anishinaabe. And that those funding sources are not, they do not come with stipulations. They are not like I, in full agreement, Joe was talking yesterday about this partnership, a community. And she talked about reconciliation. And she gave an example of the great law of peace. And by the Six Nations Confederacy. She made some really beautiful points about how for 3,000 years that there was proof that reconciliation can work. And I want to add to that, those people come from here. So they began with the same basis. So they're thinking in their heart, their flesh, they come from this earth. They were created from this earth. And even though they were born with one another, they were able to bring that peace about. So I'm interested in these different languages and these logic systems. And the English language, French language, which are the two official national languages in this country that call Canada today. But they are colonizing languages. So even our use of them has to be called into question and what those things mean. And I don't believe that reconciliation is possible between us without questioning and dismantling that system, those imperialistic systems of oppression. And they exist in all areas of this country. And from whether it's the military, the police, government, education, religion, even the family systems, there is a deep sense of imperialism and individualism. So when we signed these treaties, we understood it to be in a like sense in a similar way as the Six Nations came together. It was a two-way positive agreement. But that was never so on the part of the West. So we signed in good faith, but there was no to share. But that was never on the other side. So how can we possibly like to reconcile suggest that we were once friends and that we were met as equals. But that was never the case. So it is impossible. I don't believe it is possible at all. Unless those systems are dismantled. And a part of that is, you know, I'm here. I've been brought here in part because I have a PhD. That in itself is an epistemological injustice. I know I look young from my age. But I'm, you know, and finishing a PhD, I'm an old lady. You know, like lots of non-indigenous people, you know, they finish, they're like 25 years old. They're just kids. But for our people, we're often older because there's not a knowledge or an acknowledgement that we have to learn two systems. So we're learning what it is. We understand what it is to be in a Shinabe. And then we go to school. And even when we speak in English, there's, there's, there, we do not meet because there's a difference in our understanding. And I want to give you an example of that. That in my philosophy and in my theory classes, I would often get into a debate with one of my, one professor in particular. And he was always, you know, I couldn't understand why he was constantly seemed to be thrusting on to me like this notion of being. And I would, and I was making arguments about what is being. So you'd think, well, that's a very simple concept being, right? And, but it wasn't until I was like 40 years old that I realized, oh my God, they're being that in the West, they see being as static. It's like an essence that's always there. And it's never ending. And it's, so it's perfection. If something wasn't static, well, it could grow old. It could grow decrepit. It could, so, and you know, so I couldn't understand how can we not meet each other. It's so obvious being, but then I realized, like I had really no concept of that. No Xiaomi, I know those words, but it wasn't part of me. And that's what Joe, she was talking about, what is this bone, deep knowledge? Like we can talk and talk all day. And for years and years, and we have been, we've been talking for 500 years. And this isn't the first, this is not the first auditorium that have been witnessed to these discussions. I hope it's not gonna take another 500. And I hope we have another 500. But that, you know, for me, like I understood the world to be alive, everything, all of it. And that, so when I talked about being, you know, maybe it was a naive translation. I, you know, I think of being, well, like running. It's an ING, it's mobile, it's changing, it's active, it's dynamic. Because for us in our language, the majority of our language is comprised of verbs. So it is alive, all of it. So that notion of being a static is a difficult thing to penetrate. And it requires more than just head knowledge. It requires more than just intellectualizing. So, like my mother in all her years, she would ask me, what is it, what does this word mean, inanimate? And you know, and I'd start to, you know, rhyme off the dictionary. And she'd say, no. She'd say, from me to you. And what she meant by that was that, in the way that she understands the world, in the way that she taught me, that's how she wanted me to speak to her in return. So she could understand it. To not speak in the way of the white man, in the way they intellectualize. So, and where they come from is in this writing of our language, which has always been an oral language. And they often will articulate words or say objects as being animate or inanimate. And there's lots of debate over why in Anishinaabemowin there are things such as pots and pans which are considered to be animate and are pipes or drums. And depending on the dialect rocks. And in my dialect, where I'm from, they often say that it's one of, it might be the only one or one of few that I, first there are initially identified as being inanimate. And at other times, or certain zones of rocks are animate. And so, like I began at research with my mother from that simple place of if the rocks were alive. In what way am I alive and as a human? And if they're alive, do they die? And is that possible for me to die? And how do we live on or how do we, how are we in relation to the rock? And how do we talk back and forth to the rock? I just see my title. I think, oh, am I off topic? It's all related, it's all related. But yes, so that there's this moving back and forth where that, like when we move into these colonial languages which is for me now my only language. And I do speak some Anishinaabemowin but I'm certainly not fluent. But I had a great fortune to have a first speaking, language speaking mother who taught me the philosophy of the language and how it operates. And in that, that notion of, which is why she couldn't understand, why is it inanimate? And part of it is because that, when we're talking about nidol, that everything is endowed with nidol. Now we'll say, you might have heard, Getchimanitou. In my dialect we say Gozhem nidol. And when we talk about plural was the manidol. And there's all kinds of kind of variations of that translation. And that was anthropologist Hellowell who, I can't think of his first name right now, that who, Irving, Hellowell, he gave that translation of the other-than-human person. And a lot of people don't realize that. He's talking about the other-than-human. And there's no citation of where that comes from. And he worked with Anishinaabe since the 1920s anyway. And that's a translation of nidol. And that's his translation of nidol. He didn't, one could say he coined that, but it was a translation. And there's something, you know, when Anishinaabe, when indigenous people speak, we often don't have anything written down. I do lots of writing. It's just, you know, it's really pointless to pick it up. Because this is how we communicate is, you know, and we could say improvising. I was like, when are we not improvising? Except when we're reading, right? And so, you know, it's too, even in my discussion, I'm jumping all over in different places. You might at times, you know, see them as though it's unrelated, but given enough time, I'll bring it all back around and tie it in a knot for you. We won't have that time today, though. I'm waiting for the big hand to get out of here. So, where was I? Anybody tell me? Where? Oh, you want to hear about nidol? Okay. Yeah, so, like I was a small child, I might have been like seven. I asked my mom about, you know, like, what are they talking about? They're talking about their spirits. What are that? What does that mean? And she took me a window and she said, see that? What? All of it. Everything that you see, it's all alive. They're, you know, and they have to translate that word nidol as spirit. I don't say. I use that for convenience to communicate because that is often translated as such. But I think that is, for me, it becomes conflated too much with Christianity or with, what is it, new ageism. So when I asked her, what is this? She says, you know, like, that it's a closer interpretation from her understanding was a potency, a process, or energy. And so that gajem nidol is this ongoing, it's dynamic, and it's so, you know, we often talk about the creator or God. But for us, it's, you know, so when you take it out of those English interpretations, it's something that's much more complex. It's not just static and perfect. And there is a perfection there. And it's in that, those differences and the competitions, the places where there's a harmony and unison, but also in the competition. You know, I know we have competition. We have competition dances. We have competitive games. So, you know, it's kind of, you know, we think about the word harmony. You know, you think, oh, and Missionary Indigenous people, they're all harmony, they're all peace and love. But you have to, you know, we're not Christian. So you can't lay that Christian morality onto us. It's a separate thing. So, you know, like, so I think about that, this dynamic energy, right? And my new friend here, Lisa, she says, you know, she's talking about this responsibility. I often, you know, I give talks about where I grew up. In the home I grew up, I'm the youngest, 12. And we had no running water. We had an outhouse. I'd pump about a distance of a block behind our house. And we had no heat, but wood stoves. And, you know, and my mom, she married an Irishman. So we grew up off reserve. And, but, you know, she had not only her kids, she adopted some too. But, you know, there are a lot of people that can't, oh, I can't, you know, take care of their kids there. You know, how do you talk about how I got my two kids? I can't do anything else. This woman had like 14 kids. You know, I would wash, close with her by hand. You know, we often had a ringer washer. But, you know, with so many people, like, they were often, you know, because they were just secondhand. And then no time, that ringer would break right off the bat. And then, you know, so we tied on a stick to close, you know. Sometimes, you know, she'd say, hold on the other hand, and we'd twist the clothes to ring out the water. I couldn't, but that woman, she was so powerful. She just twisted it right out of my hands, you know. And I wondered off topic again. So, what was I talking about again? Oh, you want to go back to that? Okay. Maybe I'm going to, you know, for time's sake, I'm going to grab a piece of raven. Let's see what we got here. Let's see if I got one that's right on spot. Okay, it talks about it, around about it, but maybe I just there say it. The inanimate. So, I want to say that, you know, even though we might personify it as though it's a person, right, that it's more than that. And that it's not even a, there's the rock, that one rock. But even my own hair is alive and separate from me. So, part of me and separate from me. And so, she's my teacher. She's my elder. And her and I, you know, we were always fighting, right? We were always pulling at each other this way and that. And, you know, if I don't take time, she's always telling me to slow down. Like Lisa, slow down. And so, if I don't, I'm rushing, you know, I don't take care of myself, I don't take care of my hair. You know, she'll get caught in the door, in my zipper. You know, she tells me, you're going to have to take time. She makes me stop. So, she likes to be, you know, like it's because you were hot when you just have one braid in the back. But also, I have to, when I'm not, you know, if I'm with my partner, I'll have her tie my hair in the back. But by myself, it's easier in the front. And so, I want to talk about that, you know, so it's both, you know, one could say it's animate, or it's inanimate, but it's also, it's alive. And it don't matter even if it falls. So, I'm taught that even our hair falls where we're supposed to pick it up. We're supposed to know where every hair is. That's about, you know, those teachings are about self-care, self-love. And I'll tell you, it's impossible. It's just, it's about, it's about the, it's about taking care of being of oneself. It's not really about the impossible, obsessive task of knowing where every one single hair is. I'll tell you, my house is carpeted with my hair. But I didn't want to go back, you know, to Lisa's point about responsibility. My mom would say that, you know, like in my home, it was a home without forgiveness. And that sounds harsh when you think about, you know, what you know in the West and Christian notions of morality. But when I would do something wrong, she wouldn't say, oh, you're forgiven. She'd say, don't do it again. And, you know, so it was over and over again. Don't do it again. And then I went to school. I didn't go to school until my eighth birthday. And so I went there and I saw the other kids and they're all saying, you know, they'd do something wrong and then they'd just turn to whoever it was. And they'd say, oh, sorry. And they'd say, oh, that's okay. You're forgiven. And then they'd do it again, do it again. So I got home. I said, oh, I got some new ammunition. So I'd go home and I'd do something wrong. And my mother would say, don't do it again. And I'd say, oh, well, you're not supposed to say that. And she'd say, what, why do you mean, what are you supposed to say? And I said, I say sorry. And you say, you're forgiven. And you know, she laughed and she said, you know, I don't have that authority. I don't have the ability to grant forgiveness. And so she says, only the Nado can grant forgiveness. Only through the Nado are we let off the hook. And we know when that happens is when that harm has been rectified. And so we didn't have major crimes like we have today. And like rape was unheard of. Because we know that that injury would not be easily healed. That would not, that we knew that whatever our crime was in that way so severe that I would have to give my life, my entire lifetime to take that back. And it would fall onto our children and their children to rectify that. And because that's when we know when you're fully restored to the place you were before that injury then you're forgiven, you're let off the hook. Oh my gosh, I think I'm getting a flag. Is that it? Oh my gosh. Gee, well, we all do that, right? We all are, we're always between. But I can say as a facilitator, I'll say an instructor, but someone who's working with others in teaching capacity. Well, one, we don't write. So, you know, we walk into a classroom and people are all talking and it's buzzing in the room. And then, you know, say, you know, you stand up and say, oh, here's the teacher. Then everybody goes, falls quiet and maybe laptops and everybody's poised to record every word. And I tell them, you know, there's no exam in here. So I try not to have exams. I don't think that that's conducive to learning. Like, so if everything's alive and it's something in a verb base, so rather than thinking of knowledge as being an object that's out there, something that I can gather and own and put in my pocket to acquire, it's as I've been taught that it's something we become. So it's over time, not to say you can't and I'm going to go ahead and write. Sometimes, you know, we just write, you know, to stay focused. Otherwise, we think about my laundry or my groceries, whatever. But yeah, so I mean, for me, that's one of the things is that, and talking about these different kinds of thought systems that in English language, it's primarily noun-based. So in a noun-based world, then you're also concerned with your individual nouns, right, that you acquire as opposed to a process of being in relation to. And that interrelationality doesn't end with human or what you consider to be animate plants, animals. But with absolutely everything, you know, she says, don't do it again. She's saying, you have to take responsibility and learn from those mistakes. You have to rectify them. And even in, you know, just being careless, like we say, even, you know, not bladed grass, you know, sometimes you're sitting on the ground and you just careless to be reached over and tear up the grass or something. Well, we respect that life. We don't do that unless, you know, like those things there, they also offer themselves to us. So that, like, as humans, we're the youngest. We come here last, right? We say the rocks, they're our oldest people. So in comparison to their age, you can see how humans, we're infants. No matter how old, we're infants. That's why we're always messing up, right? You know, we're learning. But we have to learn. We have to not do it again, right? It's not enough. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Do it again. Well, that's what that says, right? And so, you know, like thinking about those systems, like how do we address those larger systems? Even in a classroom, like this, like in our time, it's fraught with a lot of student anxiety. A lot of students committing suicide over exams and papers. I don't think that that's a healthy environment. In my classes, I mark students not against one another, but in their ability to make community, to see their gifts and others' gifts and to help each other. And so they're, you know, like those people who don't leave them behind each other, but help each other. So, you know, and I think that that's part of our responsibility is, you know, to teach that. And I think that that's something that's, you know, thinking about these different kind of pedagogical strategies that's different from Shogunash and Nishnabe. Because that's what we call the European Shogunash, which is, you know, someone say, well, it means white men. There's that word white and a man isn't in that word. What it actually identifies is British imperialism. So it identifies a way of being, a way of thinking. And similar to that, Nishnabe is a way of being together that is respectful. That we're Nishin, that's good. We say, ah, ah Nishin. We always remember life, that first breath, ah. That first breath when a baby's born, ah. So we say, oh, that's, you know, like when we, that we want to know how the children are. How are those ones coming? And we respect them always and everything. We say, ah, ah, oh, shu. So we, you know, and we know that it doesn't matter that life is a blade of grass. It's not a hierarchical. And similarly, ah, ah, ah, Nishnabe. You know, but that's, that Nishin is, you know, so it's good and ah, it's really super duper, exceedingly good. It's life-giving. Ah, Nishin. Nishin. Nishnabe is, you know, like my mom would say, someone say with that naba, naba is like a man. And, but I don't, I don't understand it in that same way as being gendered, but rather as a way of being. And that my mom would say, it's similar to the rooster. And ah, nabasa. Now that's a newcomer. That rooster was brought, imported here. So I think they, they, they recognized those attributes of that rooster. And they honored them with that name, nabasa. And so when we think about those, ah, those, ah, animate beings, those living beings and their, our elders, they teach us. We, we just look at them. What are they doing? How are they? And that's how we know ourselves. Nishnabe. That, so that rooster gets up first thing in the morning. Doesn't lay in bed. Ah, I think we'll take the day off. A dawn, break a dawn, that rooster is up and goes to the highest point. And, and from there looks all around. And so that nabasa is looking out for the community, for all members of the community. And, and it's going to sound an alert if there's danger. And then, you know, and then it's going to wake everybody up too. It's time to get to work, you know, whatever it is you want to do. And, but nabasa too is, is, ah, ah, beautiful. Nabasa has got, ah, all these beautiful feathers. He loves himself, preening, taking care of himself, right? And strutting around in the yard. And, ah, you know, say, say, Nishnabe, you know, like people, you know, like we're proud. You know, that, you know, but, you know, I'm from, like, where I grew up off the reserve. They were saying, oh, we're almost the only people of color. They'd say, oh, those manims, they think they're so good. They wouldn't stoop to pick up a silver dollar. They got their heads so high in the air. And, ah, yeah, it was, it's true. We were taught to love ourselves. But it's also about a necessity in the face of incredible, ah, oppression. This is how we survived. But also, these are our teachings. To take care of ourselves, to love ourselves. And that, and, and how can we love others? We can't even love ourselves. So this, ah, nabasa is, so we know that. Nabasa is, ah, is, doesn't, isn't, ah, kind of floats between the earth and the water. Earth and, you know, just wrap it up with, and the nabasa. So that nabasa goes between earth and, ah, and, ah, sky, right? So walks gentle. So, you know, it's the way you think about those, those, ah, and so for those, those are, ah, forms of, ah, animacies, right? And our teachers are elders. We just see how they are with one another. And, ah, ah, and so we see that in states, in, ah, for, instead of shaganas, they say jamokaman, which means, ah, the big knife. It's that, they're talking about that British saber. That's crooked. And also those words are, they're crooked. Lies, right? And they cut both ways. But that's, and that refers to, again, those British sabers. Those, those soldiers sabers. Ah, so, so today, I just want to deal with this, this, ah, notion that those, those systems of thought are still here. They're imperialistic. I'm thinking about my rights, as opposed to ours, all of us. You know, I'm going to see how I look on in all those chairs that are empty, that, that, ah, they seem empty, but they're, they're full. But all our, all our people are here with us. Ha, m'gwetch. So I want to thank you, Doolin, chi m'gwetch. I think there is a beautiful circle that happened this morning with this gorgeous land acknowledgement from Lisa, ah, to, to Marla's's cautionary notes and speaking about things, very serious things we're going to be speaking about at this conference, about disrespect, about harassment, about bullying in the professional arts world and the arts worlds that we work in, in the classrooms, about the pain and anxiety and this colonial violence that is iterated and reiterated and reiterated to the point where we have become the ciphers and Doolin is offering us some sort of answer. M'gwetch. Thank you all so much. There is coffee in the lobby and in the third floor. Lounge to the next session start at 11. Thank you.