 I'm the associate provost academic programs teaching and learning here at UBC's Okanagan campus, and it is my genuine pleasure to welcome you here today as we kick off the 14th year of Celebrate Learning Week at UBC. For those in the room, I hope you had a chance to grab some Bannock. I'm really excited that Joni who's from West Bank First Nation is our caterer today and for those of you online, I'm sorry to say you did not get to have Bannock. And for those of you recording at a future date or for watching the recording at a future date, I, you know, again, sorry that you didn't get to have Bannock. But those of us here in the room, we get to celebrate with some Bannock. Celebrate Learning Week is scheduled starting today, May 2 through May 9. There are a number of different sessions happening both here in the Okanagan as well as in Vancouver. And this year we're celebrating the theme of power, the power of place in teaching and learning. And it's specifically honoring our commitments that we've made as a campus through the Indigenous Strategic Plan and understanding the importance of the places of our campuses and the places of learning as part of the teaching and learning activities that we engage in. The Provost and Vice President Academic from UBCO and UBCV will collaboratively present this week long initiative, which features open lectures, poster sessions, panel discussions, workshops here on our campus, a subtle symposium later this week for those that are interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning. UBC faculty, staff and students as well as community members are encouraged to join throughout the week and are actually excited to have them here today with us. We're actually going to start by inviting Barbara Komlos, who is an educational consultant for faculty in curriculum development here in UBC's Okanagan campus, who's going to give us a territory acknowledgement. Thank you, Brad. Haslu Kost, Eastquist Barbara Komlos, good morning. My name is Barbara Komlos. I'm welcoming you in the Insulsion language from the traditional ancestral unceded lands of the Sioux Okanagan peoples. As a new settler, I'm starting to try to learn the language. As a sign of respect, as I moved recently from the United States, from Montana to Kelowna, and had I moved to India, I would have tried to learn Hindi or Bengali, had I moved to New Zealand, I would have tried to learn some Maori. So I just respect I'm learning some Insulsion. Actually, I'm learning from my children who are learning the culture and the language in school. And one night at dinner, they started singing a song, Hakun Sin Cleep, which is where is kaiori, which I think is appropriate for today's talk. And I wanted to get them to do a recording of this song so that I could play it for you, but they didn't buy that. They wouldn't do that for me. But don't worry, I'm not going to sing it for you. Rather, I just like to share a line from that song, which is, which is how are you, or literally, as I realized, it actually means how is your heart, because spous means heart. And so today, whether you are joining from the Silk Okanagan territory or Musqueam or other traditional lands, I would like to ask you, how is your heart? For my part, I'd like to say that my heart is filled with gratitude and anticipation of what I can learn from Sin Cleep. So please enjoy it today. To start us in a good way, it brings me great joy to be able to introduce you to Okanagan Nation member Amber Cardenas from Pendictan Indian Band, who will be singing the Okanagan song. And if I can request you all to please stand. Hello, my name is Amber Cardenas and I'm from a place in my language, which is in Pendictan. It's commonly referred to today as Pendictan. But now I live in a place in my territory close to Inkmapluk, Kamini Hoot, that's the top, or what's referred to the north end of Okanagan Lake now, near area, referred to as Vernon. The song I'm going to sing today is the Okanagan song and I thought I'd give a little explanation before. The song is in our language and it's given to us by some of our fluent speakers, Dr. Jeanette Armstrong, Delphine Derrickson and Herman Edwards, to name a few. And the song of what it says is, athlete, the reason being are because, athlete, we are beautiful, athlete, because we are Okanagan and athlete, because our land or this land right here is beautiful. And the reference of beauty in this song, it's not referring to outer physical beauty as a scale of people that we carry. It's referring to anywhere we go within our land or our territory. We find or you will see a place of beauty. And that connection and that relationship of us in the land, it's given to us since the beginning of time that we've been here. And because this land has given to us and nourished us, that's what makes us beautiful. So that's a little bit about the song. I appreciate the gesture of standing but if you do need to sit down by all means please do. I don't find that disrespectful at all. Because we should acknowledge our bodies and what we are capable of. So why he, that's all I have to say and I'll sing a song. Oh, and I'm just getting over a cold so my voice is a little. Amber before you disappear we've got a small gift for you. So thank you so much. It is now my pleasure to invite Noah Chenoweth, who for those that haven't met him yet. He is a graduate student on our campus he's actually been working with the center for teaching and learning here in the Okanagan as an Indigenous initiatives fellow. He has a long history of also working with Indigenous programs and services and doing a lot of different activities in support of Indigenous students and Indigenous projects and initiatives on our campus. He's also taking the lead coordinating the Okanagan side of Celebrate Learning Week so he is going to introduce our keynote so Noah. Hello everyone, thank you so much. Yes, my name is Noah Chenoweth I am a graduate student here at UBC Okanagan, and I have the great privilege of having Dr. Bill Cohen as my supervisor. It's really amazing to have another community member as a supervisor because I'm able to learn more about, you know, Okanagan culture, history, epistemologies and just like ways of being and I'll forever be thankful that Dr. Cohen has shared these teachings with me. Dr. Cohen is a educator. He's an artist he's a storyteller and he's an author, and I am so honored that he is being our keynote for Celebrate Learning Week and I am very excited for the magic that will come this week. So I'll invite Dr. Cohen up. Hello everyone, I am Dr. Cohen and I am a graduate student here at UBC Okanagan, and I have the great privilege of having Dr. Cohen as my supervisor. So respect to the Musqueam. Okay, so this Waikul and Chuten, it's simply a greeting to all of creation. It's a new day, we're here. Everything we need is here and much to be thankful for and much to look forward to. And the greetings, greeted you all as relatives, as friends. And to this, to this, our Silech Sukunakinukh homeland, which has never been given away or sold or surrendered and that our ways continue. And also the respect to the, in Vancouver, to the Vancouver campus, which is situated on the unceded homeland of the Musqueam. And I'm going to talk today called This Talks Includes Power to Make the World Safe for the People's to Be. Coyote stories so we can all have a future. So I'd like to just thank the organizers, Brad, and I'd like to thank Barbara for the for the in Silech and the connections to to Indigenous peoples in place and connecting to Silech and in Silech and language here. I'll reconnect to some of that and also for to Dr. Buzzard for the for the for the intro and to Outer Seek for the for the Okanagan song. I want to reconnect multiple times to that notion of song and the Okanagan song as a collective collective expression of what we put into practice as our life ways. And so when I was first asked, can you do this keynote to celebrate learning week and I thought, well, what do Silech and Indigenous peoples have to celebrate and and that kid. And I get dark in a hurry. So how about in this era of climate change, fires, floods, racialized, gendered violence and missing and murdered Indigenous women, children, girls, LGBTQ and two S and white nationalism intolerance. And we've got this violence against the Earth mother against life givers. So, so I thought about that. And thought about the historical connections, particularly related to schooling and and learning and teaching. So that story is pretty clear others removed and continue to remove scale of Silech children from their identity, their rights and their knowledge, language connections to place. And so there's a lot of other discourses around trauma of being traumatized by colonialism, genocide and all of that, which residential schools and other aspects certainly certainly were expressions of so that children were removed from the love and influence of extended families. And that happened here it happened in many places throughout Canada and the world. So we often think about the Indigenous peoples were impacted by this. I just want to point out that everyone else was as well. And that this is we also were also all dealing with the notions of terror and alias the empty land and then over here. And the social Darwinism of the eugenics the racialized hierarchies and all the stereotypes they they there's there's still resonating. So, so these are some of what we're, we're looking at. And, and some of the traumatized pathologized view looks at Indigenous peoples as as you know they've been through a awful stuff so they need need need help and that sort of thing they need counseling and therapy. So, another aspect of that is the, that Celic and Indigenous peoples are here because of matriarchs, aunties, uncles, extended families who have, who have maintained who we are, and to have addressed and overcome a lot of the racist legislation that existed that said we're not allowed to vote we're not allowed to leave the reserves and not allowed to hire a lawyer and all kinds of ridiculous kind of a legislation, and that the residential school survivors, the most part was residential school survivors who, who organized the TRC calls to action that we're, that we're connecting with now that the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples, those are those were organized by by survivors. And the point is, is that there's been a lot of, a lot of stuff has happened to us, but we've also found out how capable we really are, and that we've got lots to contribute as well. I wanted to just give a given, give some respect to some of the matriarchs and the life giver life giving powers that have been expressed. So, the late Sam teacher Sarah Peterson, a lot of what we the language resources the language projects, and for little kids for language houses really really really have been inspired by by her she's a great and she inspired the All Creek Language Association which is just continues to resonate on both sides of the border and many many communities. The late Louise Gabriel, the late Louise Gabriel from Penticton. See the canoe trek was her vision that she said, Our people we need to, we need to start building our carving our canoes again our traditional canoes and paddling our territory and, and we need to put all the kids in there and need to connect to connect to our to make to our land or, or we're going to forget who we are and what our responsibilities are to this place. That resulted in both the both the symbolic movement and a very real movement of, of reconnecting to the black cottonwood, which are those canoes are made of and the black cottonwood riparian areas which are so important to filter the water in our ecosystems. And, and the notion of paddling our canoes and, and self determined being self determining that way. So that's a, that's a major and, and, and what Laudie Lindley from upper Nicholas she's the late Laudie Lindley some of her. Her, she was fluent in multiple interior Salish languages and see Lichon and look up muck and she's pretty good and some others. But her, her stories and work with with with linguists continue to resonate and, and also back in the back in the back in the 90s. This is also in the 90s when the Okanagan song emerge reemerged as a, as a, as a identity song as a connecting to place and responsibility song, reaffirming who we are as, as people of this land of the earth, children of the earth. And so in the 1990s, there was a crisis, there was the Gustafson Lake, there was all these standoffs between indigenous peoples and, and the Canadian government to military and, and, and at that time I just was almost 30 years ago. I just completed an undergrad and I was at home in the, in, in the upper Nicola near Merritt visiting visiting our relatives. And I call that place home as well. So when I got there, there was a conflict between the biggest ranch in Canada and the upper Nicola band separate the folks from upper Nicola had been fishing these lakes for millennia. And then the ranch decided not not anymore. So they blocked all the gates and blocked access to the to those lakes. So the band responded with well, well, both access roads to the ranch go through our reserve so find another way to get to the ranch. So, so, so that that's a checkpoint was set up. And some uncle says, Well, you're you're going to university you might be useful you but it come to the, you might have to talk at the pocket at the blockade so we so we went over the checkpoint and, and it was dark. And, and we were, we were stopping vehicles and letting people through who are not from the ranch and anybody from the ranch would say no find another way to get through. So we're hearing these reports that that the riot squad was going to take us down. We're hearing reports that there were likely snipers that were positioned so we're hearing all of these reports and both. You know, maybe the SWAT team might come in, you know, take us all down. So we're in the dark and we're thinking about what are we going to do. And, and so so so my uncle he was saying well, well, we're going to stretch a rope between a couple of horses and then when they come at us we're going to just move them all down knock them down. We're thinking about that and, and as we're thinking about that and getting some horses and ropes and, and the laudy and the, and the, and the other grandmother showed up. And laudy came in her wheelchair and she parked in front of us put it in the middle of the road and said, said, we said, we brought you guys into, into the world we watched you grow up and now you stand behind us. And so, so we're, oh, so, so we couldn't do it was pretty tough to argue so we're okay we have to, we're standing behind the, the matriarchs the grandmothers and, and they said we're going to do the talking and so so we're, we're, you know, wondering what would happen and, and it turns out that I think that that move maybe, maybe counter to some of what may have happened. So the next day, nothing happened that night for the next day, a different agreement was was worked out. But that, that example of that, that era, and of indigenous peoples and us being in these pitted against, against obstacles as the enemy as terrorists as, and when what we're doing is trying to figure out how we can take care of the, the fish, the land, the water that we've all that we've always done. So that's sitting there and that uncertainty trying to figure that out. And the, and the matriarchs that that that kind of wisdom that's far reaching into the, into the future is what intervened and, and that continues. And so, so, so what, what's what's different now with climate change and all of the outcomes of way we've been living our lives as a larger society is that all of us are looking out into the into an uncertain future and figuring out how are we going to take care of this place how are we going to have a healthy future. And I've got another matriarch who is very much still with us, Jeanette Armstrong, who founded the now consenter who's, who's leading some of the collaborative projects with the bachelor of and see which and language and see, and, and, and multiple projects which connect to Selik and knowledge and language and epistemology to, to, to collaborations with the university. And out of the out of that era. All through that era at the same time there were the, the now consenter Thetis books and, and Selik elders were, were, were sharing stories. With the indigenizing Selik icing with Selik Okanagan peoples. I will start with some concepts and frameworks. So concepts and frameworks. We can look at, look at that. First to develop some courses, Selik concepts and frameworks Okanagan concepts and frameworks. I was, I was amazed at how, how a lot of concepts in our language are, are so metaphorical and conceptual. And these stories, these stories are, are, are really is a, is amazing. And frameworks that continuously reposition us as humans into the, into the world and as part of the world. So when we, I'll, I'll go through some of these. Some of these concepts, chapter, our, our story system. It actually, it actually means the, the ember, the continuously burning ember that ignites new understanding for coming generations. So it's what's the wisdom that's passed on as a collective practice or praxis. And the notion of a scale, our term for humans, scale, scale, I've had a good fortune to connect with lots of really fluent speakers, elders. And scale has been explained as scale means where the dreaming ones as humans were the dreaming ones, anything we can imagine, we can make that happen, because we've got this incredible mind power. And, but, and this is where we'll, we'll start connecting to the Coyote stories is that we're not always responsible with that mind power. And this notion of a pach pach, so, so I'll connect to elaborate a little bit more a little bit further on, but if you're, if somebody, if an elder says that you're pach pach, it means that you're practice your practice the way you conduct yourself what you contribute is good for the good for the to me good for the land the ecology is good for the coming generations is good for the people. So it's a collective collective wisdom that you, you practice. So, so some of these stories on this trilogy, it's been around for for it's been around for a long time I think about over 30 years. And now it's also in sea leaching, but how food was given. There are, there are numerous doctoral dissertations that are informed by that story. And here's the Okanagan Nation, wellness strategy is informed by that story. And it's a, it's, it's a, what, what, what, what we're, what we're finding is that a lot of these stories when they're translated into English they come across as children stories, and they are in some ways some aspects. But also that the translation doesn't do the justice to the do the story so it brings up the importance of language and and and story ways how names are given how turtles at the animals free. These are stories about about transformation about transforming vision, emancipation. So, and there are lots of lots of anyone can have access to these stories you can, you can, you can purchase them from the latest books you can do online searches there's lots of curricular resources that have been developed. But there's a, this is the new thing it's learning from and with indigenous peoples in our case see like people's in our respective homelands. And so, so I imagine, imagine some of you have heard some heard of some cloudy stories perhaps some of you have seen Madeleine to basket or, or some of you might have encouraged any of you you can do a do online search of of Coyote and Fox Okanagan stories and you'll come up with with numerous versions. So I wanted to. I wanted to look at the gathering the bits of coyote I'm not going to tell the whole story right now for, but I'm going to share share some of the bits of what happens to sing cleave coyote. A lot of times. So, so, so in the one story you know he sees a buckle cane he sees eagle way up in the sky and he thinks you know that should be me and in any ways he ends up going up on a really high cliff and trying to fly and and it doesn't turn out very well. And he finds out he doesn't have wings and, and, and he starts, he starts he starts falling out of the sky and he starts banging against the cliff and, and he gets starts getting torn apart and in the in the in the PG rated version he actually gets his his his anus gets caught on a rock and open everything gets a strewn all over and there's a trail all the way down the mountainside, and this mountain is still in the smell coming. But anyways he gets destroyed. And that's the end of sin cleave. So sin cleave has a has a has a gift. And this gift from creation is this incredible mind power. So sin cleave can do amazing things with the mind power can move mountains can move whole forest and, and the responsibility that sin cleave was given with that mind power was to make the world safe for the people is to be the coming humans. So, so, so, but sin cleave being sin cleave doesn't always practice. Good foresight or not always responsible, sometimes appetite or ambition or all kinds of notions. And he forgets about those responsibilities. Luckily, luckily, while some please brother Fox also has a gift the ability to bring sin cleave back to life and restore that monster transforming incredible mind power that can make the world safe for the people's to be. And those are those are some gifts. Well, so I have gifts from all of the other to meet the to me for all of the life forces of this place, the plants, the animals, the water, everything from the land. Everything from the earth. And those, those, those to me they in the in the health food has given story food. Give us everything we need for food for medicine for homes for everything we need to live well. And all we have to do sing songs of thanks so that those to me keep coming back to life they keep. They keep returning for us. So, so, so I want to just think about those, those gifts and emphasize no sacrifice the natural world and sacrifice themselves for us humans they knew we were coming and decided to take care of us and that's why we have this kinship relationship with the earth because the earth was doing very well without us humans and then that's when showed up. And we, we don't know how to live our lives like the other to me know how to live in ways that contribute to the well being and health of all of the other to me around us all of the other interconnected species the water the earth. And we need to practice that. My small screen I've got to get this. This remove the gallery was a bossing into my screen there we go. This, this, this picking up the pieces. So when, when, when Fox comes along and and bring simply back to life he does it by, by, by the where, where, where it's in click was at his latest misadventure and been torn to pieces. So, and a lot of times it's not just visual because sometimes he's been there for a while and it's not very pleasant you can be a little sticky. Sometimes a box will come along and the stench will be so bad enough to use a stick and gather up these pieces and breathe into the pile and, and step over it four times and then simply comes back to life. This is important as a knowledge production metaphor it's what it's what we're what we're engaged in as well. We gather up the bits of the outcomes of the past and present. We, we have dialogue we, we breathe into the we, we breathe into the pile. We create new understanding. And understanding is not enough to just create new understanding, we need to practice it and and apply it in our in our lives and this is the steps that are that are there. So in the, in the, in the school of education some of what we've been doing is is is is connecting with with with educators with with with with CC lift and intercom in this case and knowledge keepers there's a Anna Saddleman, who's authored the monster poem about her residential schools if there's anybody here in here heard that poem. Do all of you do do do do do do a search or look up Dennis Saddleman the monster. It's a, it's a, it's a story of the residential schools that will will will rock you it will it will it will it will give you insights into what happens and also give you some of the insight into the potential. So, so Dennis was a residential school survivor he was abused horribly in the residential school, we survived and became the word warrior and, and shares poetry to transform the school monster. And so what the school monster did was, as I said was very very harsh targeted a indigenous families started targeted indigenous kids to, to destroy their, their identity their connections as peoples as a, as a diverse community that because they we were in the way of access to our lands and resources and all of that material wealth that's associated with our, our lands and homelands. So we started to started to look at pick up those pieces together, picking up the pieces is actually an exhibit of made up of bits of residential schools from across Canada. And it was an art exhibit that they at the clone art gallery. So hopefully some of you have attended it they're also online versions. And we've also been connecting teachers and sealic knowledge keepers to the water to not just talking about it in classrooms but getting out together and developing relationships with the water that are appreciative. And once you develop a relationship with the water with each other, then, and then you can't just be neglectful anymore you take some responsibility for that water and, and each other. And here are some UBCO indigenous grad students hosted by sealic at Catholic are also known as spotted lakes of you, but closely you can see no way in there you can see a few others. But this is also an example of, of sealic here being very opening and welcoming to to indigenous folks from elsewhere. And everybody else as well is that is that letting everybody know that there's there's a people here and that we have knowledge we have history, we have a future. We have pedagogy we have epistemology and we have all of the allergies. And, and we've, we've taken taken very good care of this place for thousands of years. And so it's very pragmatic to connect with us. Some of the relationships being developed the sealic knowledge keepers elders youth educators, engaging in creative land based co curricular making. So, so this is a, these are, these are, these are some new developments these have only happened recently that sealic people are indigenous peoples and in BC are contributing to curricular resource development. And in really meaningful ways that are connected to place, and are developed as a, as a collaboration in the, in the old, not so not so old, quite, quite recent days the, what would happen was that latest step would come down from the ministry saying this is what we're going to do we're going to help you help you indigenous kids because you're culturally disadvantaged we're going to help you through the existing system make it through, give you some support, put you into the general programs. And we're also going to add some of your culture in symbolic ways, but no nothing transformational or systemic, but to make you feel better about your continued disappearance. So that that was the, that's the old story that's still very much with us but we're starting to starting to change that. So some of the, I'd say some of the praxis the importance of doing reflecting and doing again, and not just talking about it is actually getting out there and developing those relationships with the water with the earth with the plants and the animals. And, you know, use this example of a couple of a kind of a cultural ways coming together. Okay, now again, there is a western shin of bringing the garden to the village. And that has a has some has some key benefits and fortunately I turned into some of the mass destructive agriculture that's quite impactful to ecosystems but but that bringing the garden to the village. And there's also the bringing the village to the garden. So this is this is what is being is being understood and realized by, by, by others us. And we've kind of known it all along and for granted that that if we want the food, the food chiefs to keep giving us food security and wellness security then we have to take care of the water, we have to not bring bring bring that bring the salmon salmon pond here, but to go to the we take care of the river we take care of the ecosystem of, and, and that we take care of the berry patches we, we take care of the, the root fields, and we take care of the larger ecosystems management as a as food based societies. And so, so, so that's what we're doing in multiple ways so this is a recent picture from the other day. So if you look out would pass the EME building you'll see a whole bunch of stripped up areas where our future teachers have been pulling weeds and and addressing the invasives and working on reestablishing some of the seal of indigenous species. We've been working on that as well as raise beds and doing some organic organic farming and and looking at food production where we looking to those place based local connections which are also make us more much more producers than consumers as consumers we don't have much a reciprocal relationship with our foods we eat and the health and well being of the place. It's kind of a more of a relationship with some of the some of the some of the corporations. There's some of the relationships where we're working at. We're also aware that these are life gifts they must be continuously renewed we can never take them for granted. The, the food chief story that if you don't know what what what happens is that for us to survive the natural world before food chiefs said that they'd give us their lives and all of that but we had to sing them into sing them back into life continuously. So, so, but it's not enough for just a one or two, one or two to be singing the whole community that needs to be a critical mass appreciating the natural world appreciating diversity culturally and biologically that there's a few of us are doing it and the same old will continue. We need this critical mass to get to a puch puch every day practice. And this is what these these these cowdy story ways as a as a as a pedagogical practice practice or praxis is that these stories we didn't have. Traditionally, the back in the day, there weren't, they didn't sit everybody down and say now we're going to analyze what this story means and now we're going to interpret you know we're going to break it down. So, that didn't happen. We're told and retold and will context so that they become part of the consciousness is a different way of knowledge, non knowledge and understanding so that this to when we, and when we need to make the right decisions in the stories will inform us how to make the right decisions and and I've got to. I've got some will call it the not so good news. The outlook, and we've been experiencing all of these record temperatures for heat waves and atmospheric rivers and mudslides and, and just recently we've been experiencing a lot of the warmest temperatures ever recorded for this time of year and of course they've so many you've heard about the record temperatures ever and in Lytton and, and, and the wildfires there. So, so, so the scientists the educators a community who've been monitoring our, our carbon emissions and and what what we need to do to kind of turn things around. So, so, apparently by 2030 we have to changing changing things that changing the way we're we're living, or the future looks quite bleak for us. So, so we also know to that we seem to sometimes we're not very willing to change. We've got to. We've got to. We've channel the rivers we banked banked them with the fires of raised, you know, raised communities. The mudslides have wiped out the Coca Cola but we just rebuild it and carry on and without changing too much so. So sometimes we, we, we need a further nudge but those nudges are certainly getting a louder. So, so there, there are some, there are some good news. So, mentioned before the truth and reconciliation Commission calls to action the first people's principles of learning the UN declaration that those are pathways to indigenous people's diverse humanity. And so, so this say patriarchy colonialism have been quite destructive in terms of outcomes to the life givers we've got all of this violence and isms racism sexism and all of that. So, the, the later on a sunny scholar john mohawk commented on on on the on the development of Western Western knowledge. When, when indigenous peoples of the Americas were connecting with with with Western people so it's all men. So he raised the question, why would any society limited limit its intellectual and creative potential by 50% by not allowing women to to participate. So, so, so that will, will, will, will revisit that as a, let's say one of that's one of the, it's one of the outcomes that was indigenous folks who can give ourselves a nod for that because we've been valuing in many cases, placing a placing a lot of status and influence and the role and the voices and and contributions of the life givers women matriarchs and our societies. And so, so that that's a 50% improvement right there. So, can we continue collectively learn from the past and present create the wisdom, so people's to be can have food and well being security. Well, let's say we potentially have access to the most college and creativity ever women contributing. I think the indigenous people is contributing some radical collaborations can happen these are radical because he said, haven't happened so what they're, they're happening now. We're, we're just now here after 160 years. I think that collaboration with with with us to say how can we take care of this place better. These land acknowledgments those are people and earth mother diversity acknowledgments they're humanizing when I say it's overdue. It's been a long time for us to be acknowledged as human as part of human with no language all of that. And the old colonial story or primitives and you're in the way and we need to get rid of you and you're the problem and you know all of that stuff for for unlearning. So we know for sure that our collective intellectual and creative potential is much greater. So, that's got some advice get to know the indigenous people and whose homelands are situated co create some park park curriculum. And so when we look at what can we celebrate what do we have to celebrate in in learning week. Do we do we have a bringing back to life songs. We're lucky for all of us that with with life givers indigenous people is around the world and collaborations with universities and communities. We can bring that coyote coyote mindpower to make the world safe for the coming humans for the people is to be. The potential and the capacity to do that because the, the mindpower that is destructive is the same mindpower that can also transform and and and create create reciprocity and balance again. So, so there's that and we're going to need it. So, this notion of collective kinship practice where teachers educator. And when we get to know each other, we take on some anti uncle roles now. We're no longer the disconnected teachers we have some responsibilities to love and look out for and care for the kids were connected to now and in the future. And we've got some some some some good turn ups the Okanagan Sakai are back for the time being. And we've got these songs that bring that to me back to life or are re emerging you've heard the Okanagan song. And that's an inclusive song. It's not everybody can be seal it Okanagan, but you can certainly sing that song together and we could learn. With each other. And also think about the other collective song we've got and I say, I wouldn't think about that when you hear old Canada, when you hear the Okanagan song. Think about the songs what we give voice to what we activate as as our life ways as what we do with each other and for each other. How much of that is the old colonial story that reproduces and how much are our songs bringing back to life and looking out for the future peoples. And that is a song ceremony. It's certainly all of that, but it's also the metaphor of our life ways what we give voice to. And kind of a neat thing to think about is our language and selection is also the root the room for water see see look. So it's taking a some responsibility of the knowing that our voices are very connected to the water to this place and we are the water are the we are the. We are the land we are the where the plants the animals we know all of that in terms of chemistry physiology and all of that but we're also also the land where the people in terms of the health and well being. So, so we've got to. We've got to mention these these sparks the sparks that ignite when we. When we, when we sometimes are friction. When we think about ways we're doing things or what we've, what we've done in the past and looking at some of what we've done in the past if we're, if we're going to be scale look these humans who can whatever we imagine we can make that happen. So, so can we learn from the past, leave some of the isms what's destructive to children to the life givers leave that in the past and create this new understanding going forward. The more we the more we practice it. But there's a reason that there's those is uncomfortable feeling sometimes we think that something is wrong or something is not right. But the, I'd say the good news is that indigenous peoples and others critical theorists. There's, there's, there's much opportunity to, to, to contribute no understanding from multiple perspectives rather than antagonistic kind of a clashes. And this is what we can see learned and and practice learning our songs. This is something that we can practice as educators, seeing the gifts the potential in each other in the kids and connecting each other in the future generation to those songs those life ways that that produce and make the world safe for the for the coming humans for the peoples to be. That's our challenge. And that's the end of the end of the show for now. And just for just for homework, I mentioned a coyotes power and ask you all to think about where coyotes power comes from comes from this place. You can still see it on the, you can see it on the on the cliff near Karameas. It comes from coyotes poop is still still all small strewn down that cliff. So when we think about our power to make the world safe for the peoples to be, as we, there was a gift from simply from coyote to us depends a lot on what we leave behind on the on the poop that we produce. And that is our that is our legacy that can be good stuff or it can be very destructive. So limit. So we have some time for questions and discussion. I'm really hoping that we both we can both take some questions from here in the room as well as online are it for those of you that are online. So please read, read your question in the chat, and we'll have somebody here in the room read out your question to the room so it can be heard in the room and heard for the recording. But I wanted to start just by acknowledging I love the stories and so I'm. I think about bringing these stories into our classrooms as a collective group. Can you think of, you know, what are some of the resources in community that we can tap into like where where are there's so many different opportunities at the Okanagan nation and now can others kind of our facilitating opportunities to learn and I'm just wondering share a little bit of the for those of us that are hungry to keep learning where do we where can we learn from in the community. Okay, yeah so so you mentioned some of the some of the key starting places, the now considered. Okanagan nation, as well as all of the all of the member communities of the of the people so wherever you are if you're in. You're in if you're in Kelowna or West Bank you connect with the West Bank First Nation or since we've museum or you can connect to as well every school district has as. Indigenous departments who are for connections to see the Okanagan peoples and and and partnerships are continuously being developed between between. The UBCO here the School of Education and you now consider the the Okanagan nation and. I'll give that I'll give that I'll give the fisheries. A plug for sure because that's been one of the one of the great stories of the Okanagan sockeye return is that you can connect with the Okanagan nation fisheries and in your classrooms you can grow grow grow fry. And you can participate in the annual fry release, which so kids get to connect with the water connect with the food chief and connect with all of the inner interconnected interdependent species relationships that are associated with water and the salmon and. Water communities so there are numerous books so there are. Check out the latest books. Check out some of the some of the resources from. From the Okanagan nation. Yeah, and. There's a there there are there are many facilitators we've got we're connecting with speech in hemp workshops there are there are people throughout the Okanagan who can do that I'd recommend that that's a really cool. Practice where the pedagogy is the is the is the practice so you get to know where where speech and where the hemp grows to learn how you learn how. How critically endangered it is and also how pen it potentially has to recover also when you work all of these strands. You get all these strands that they're kind of weak and brittle and then you start working them start wanting them together and then that's how you build these very strong very interconnected very enduring. Good for good for nets their waterproof good for clothing or hats and but. This is the notion of educational leadership in a seal of context as well is what we're doing is. Intertwining bringing ourselves together making ourselves into stronger more interdependent interconnected communities rather than these these. More more brittle disconnected more connected we are the stronger as a as a larger whole we are so so lots of opportunities. You can you can Google you can look it up in the phone book you can you can send me an email. So I do invite if you have a question stick up your hand or if there's a question in the chat. So we have microphone that will run around room while you're thinking I'm going to ask another one. Which is one of the things that the others that I spent I grew up with and we're teaching was was the importance of. Being in relationship in relationship with people with the land with the territory that we're in and I think, you know, thinking of the power of places a theme. I'm just thinking of as if there is. Some advice you would give to particularly early career faculty when they're arriving to our campus but but even just faculty in general who are teaching on our campus. You know what are the what are some of the kind of the most. Important things that you think about in terms of being relationship with our with this place and and can you talk a little bit further about kind of maybe how. How faculty can can connect place into their own kind of research scholarship. In addition to teaching. Yeah, yeah, I'd say I connect to a would connect to to Barbara's. That's what she mentioned at the beginning that her children and schools are connecting to see the knowledge and language and, and that's a, it's a, it's a connection there so through. Probably the most important connection is through our through our children. We the more we can collectively look out look out for them and connect them and each other to this place and take care of it and in meaningful ways that that it's actually not that not that difficult to do. So the indigenous studies department here there's the Okanagan School of Education, I've got me and some other folks there and, and there are there are the indigenous program services they've got really great programs so so so so check those out there's a, there's opportunities, and they're waiting opportunities they're saying come and see us and let's see what we can do together. So, so yeah I would say it's as simple as asking looking around. Definitely they, the opportunities are are all around. I really do believe that the humility that comes with taking the time to learn is incredibly important. Please. Is this on. Oh, wow that's loud. Sorry. Nice to meet you. My name's Alan Ace Ferguson I'm a new faculty here at UBC Okanagan and indigenous studies. I'm a trauma repair therapist and psychologist by background. So, I, I want to ask you a question, because the Scott the deep scholarship the original scholarship of the stories are very powerful, and I'm hearing them for the first time today as a newcomer to this territory. I'm an Ishtabic, but there are a lot of people listening to these stories probably like me for the first time. And I know that your, your talk was titled after a sneak, the coyote, but because I'm, I'm a trauma repair psychologist for many years. I was struck by Fox, and the pedagogy of Fox, and you shared resources to just books and some names of some books where I could pursue reading more of this original scholarship. I want to ask you while you're here so you make sure that I not on the wrong track or I have some cultural oversight around my thinking. But when you shared the story about the broken bones of coyote, and sometimes it's hard to see sometimes it's hard to smell. It makes me think about frontline trauma repair work, and then the job of Fox. So I became really interested in Fox pedagogy as a result of your talk. And correct me if my thinking is not on the right track and making that association with how to heal and that that that middle part between you know you have the destruction of colonization and the erasure of our people. We have that piece of time where we're trying to breathe life back in and how to do that, and finding the correct model and approach has been very, very hard. You know, I think we've had Aboriginal Healing Foundation we've had TRC, we've had missing and murdered Indigenous women's report but I don't think any of that is informed by Fox pedagogy. So, you could speak to that. I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, I'd say the role of Fox is what brings the reflective, continuously creative, our praxis of becoming whole again when we've been fragmented, or when parts of us have been taken away or removed, is that's part of the part of the reconnecting and returning to wholeness. So we can see that that's done in, you can see it happening in multiple ways so, so in the Okanagan and elsewhere, where some cases bringing bones back from museums, returning, returning to wholeness, or bringing our kids back, we've been disconnected or taken away by family services and, you know, or some of our kids have been, our youth have been taken away by some of the addictions and all of that. So, so when we're returning to, returning to wholeness, we're rebuilding, when I mentioned the matriarchs, as we're having some of those, returning those loving relationships, those appreciative relationships that are healthy to place extended family, reestablishing those as educators, I can say that when I had that diagram up of indigenous peoples at the seal of peoples, so they targeted us, they said your kids are at the center, we're going to grab those kids out of there and put them over here and I'm going to try to get rid of you that way. So that's, that's where a lot of the trauma comes from, but where the, I think for all of us and we think that that just happened to indigenous peoples, happened to everybody else who are doing that other knowingly or we are unknowingly as a part of the relationships that we're all producing. So, when all of us, when we start collectively appreciating the water, connecting to the water, to the life gifts, and we start developing those relationships of appreciation and respect, then that's what I think in my understanding from some of the, some of the matriarchs that some of whom I've mentioned, that's how we, that's how we restore the health of our kids, and restore the health of place, it's a very much tied, bound or tied together, and welcome. Okay. Yeah. Thank you so much for this wonderful presentation. My name is Amira Ahmed. I'm a PhD student and a faculty of creative and critical studies and my, my studies studying interactive media in global citizenship education and I was wondering about interrogating indigenous perspective in my study is like, how we can introduce interactive media presenting these stories that you are like talked about, and you talked about the barrier of language and how we being translating these stories are like, doesn't do them justice. So, and how I'm wondering how the, the visual presentation of this stories can not like present them enough. So, and like, good. So I was wondering how we can process as a barrier of language. Do you think about it's better to present them in the original language or like with translation, how best to introduce media reflecting these stories in education, because from my like what I heard that like it's only words we are trying to interrogate these stories and interrogate this in education, but there is no actual efforts in making them like connected into like a children background and making them stick with children so I was using if we are using interactive media in classrooms, how best to approach this in order to best communicate these stories to children. Okay, so there's kind of say multiple parts to that there's an in some ways that English has been useful so that many of us from diverse cultural backgrounds can understand each other there's a language that we can engage in. But that's also the colonial aspect has been very homogenizing. And so we're, we're, we're finding out is that that homogenization, it's a cultural homogenization reduces the cultural diversity of humanity. So, also, we know in ecosystems and biology that the more diverse an ecosystem is the more stable and healthier it is. So we're just kind of figuring that out with the cultural diversity as well that that that seem dynamic is there. So, so, so it's a, it's a, it's a, let's say it's a it's a it's a both. We have to kind of straddle that this or that we don't have one kind of a singular strategy but one, one key strategy is is is connecting with the diversity of we're going to decolonize and we're no longer colonizing your racing looking to get rid of the indigenous peoples, wherever we are wherever we've sit and wherever wherever we were living and learn, we've learned to call that place home. And it makes a lot of a sense to, to create humanizing relationships by. Yeah, as, as Barbara mentioned, if we went to, we went to Greece, and we might be expected to we might pick up some Greek language and some of the some of the culture there if we go somewhere else, then, but that's been a, that's been kind of a brushed aside as a, as an active practice. So that I think is a really good starting point and, and it can be those use of translators and, and, and, and translated text subtitles and all of that, you know, those are those are very useful as well. But being mindful of appreciating difference in diversity, more we practice that the better we'll get at it we haven't been very good at it as a Western society. We've been very quite, quite cruel to non binary and non anybody who's non. So our historical record is pretty clear on that, but we also have the ability to change that in our everyday lives so we change that here by learning some in selection. Yeah, so. Next time, next time I see you, you can say why I say why could you keep knowledge you're here. So as an Ed consultant, I have a pedagogy question. I know in the room we have engineers and biologists and chemists and all over so not everybody can do land based pedagogy, or, I don't know, incorporate some of some of the things that you mentioned but what would be your wish, like I'm wondering, what do you wish that everybody teaches on our campus or maybe even Vancouver, that they can incorporate maybe to help sink sink come back to life to, you know, what just basically what what where it is where to begin to acknowledge the land or where we are. Yeah, some of those traditions some of the stories. Yeah, so I think I think you've answered your own question a little bit. A little bit there in those is what about say what about stem or what about, you know, these areas that they're not they're not story they're not creativity and but just like to say that these stories they are very very much the real world plants the animals. That is that is very much the real world that we're a part of. And there are the opportunities when we say knowledge convergence and it's not this or that it's not we're going to do it all be indigenous now, what we, but what we can do, and I think it's a reasonable expectation is that those of you who are stem educators, those of you who are in in in business and management is to say what's your, what's your way back to life song. How does what how does the knowledge you produce contribute to the well being of the future generations of this the ecosystems of this place. I think that's really fair and because a question we need to address so that our, our future generations are future kids can live well and have a chance at good lives. Okay, thank you. I'll try and keep it simple question for a simple answer. So as a newcomer to Canada, and a new guest on the seal traditional territory. I'm very mindful of power symbols in language as well. So I think Canada is really good in, you know, embedding the maple leaf as a symbol. We see it in many ways at different levels of society. As a seal symbol that maybe not equivalent but a seal symbol that that we can carry forward we can point to as as a guide, as something to to rally attention towards. Okay. Sounds like I need to assign some homework. Okay, but, but, but I would say that those connections so when you, when you, when you hear the, hear the Okanagan song, for example, is that that's, that's an expression of, it says, we are, we are, we are beautiful and a healthy whole way, because of our relationships to the land ecology that is healthy and whole. And, as long as we maintain that that relationship then, then, and the future, you know, looks, like we have a, we have a good chance. But we have to say that I can't, I can't think of a kind of a singular, singular way. Other than, other than, I think we can probably replace that, that maple leaf with maybe some, maybe a spider's web, maybe, maybe the, maybe the earth mother. Yeah, I think, I think relationships and symbols concepts is connecting to these notions of as humans. And this, I think people stroke the world we can learn from what are our concepts as humans connected to place. Our concepts as humans connected to places that we have this mind power where we've got this incredible creativity, we can do amazing things technologically we can do amazing things in terms of science and controlling this or, or changing this into that and developing we've got this incredible. It's an incredible mind power. But we can also, I think, maybe this is the role of a fox to maybe it's the, maybe the fox symbol comes up of this creative reflection and praxis of picking up the pieces and creating this new understanding. I think that's a way that, when I said, not all of us can be Sukuna Kinuk, not all of us can be Anishinaabe or Hawaiian or over that but in every place we can, we can achieve, and there's no reason we can't degrees of indigeneity and indigeneity as a as an achievable relationship where, where those of us who are here that our life ways aren't destructive and destroying the ecology the ecosystems or where we sit where we're smart enough or we should be bright enough to, to develop a balance where, where our life ways are not destroying the homelands or where we live. And yeah, I think that's, I don't have a symbol for that indigeneity but certainly a destination and we can, we can get to. So, thank you so much, Bill for for sharing stories with us today. Teachings of Coyote, teaching as a fox. I'm reminded of, I don't know what I'm, as a kid growing up and listening to stories of Coyote, Cree, Mati Elders always talk about Coyote as the trickster and, and the importance of humor as part of learning as well and so thank you for bringing so that sense of humor to this to this keynote as well. So those that are online, we're going to end the recording and end the session here.