Bonnie and I decided to treat this as though we were going to a conference: road trip and hotel, going out to dinner, making new friends, but since our lives are in the same full sweep of covid-19 that would mean we would stay at home to do all of this.
I hadn’t listened to more than two sessions, when I discovered that the event was too intense and I knew we would never make it through every session, as I had planned.
I did take 11 pages of notes.
I hadn’t listened to more than two sessions, when I discovered that the event was too intense and I knew we would never make it through every session, as I had planned.
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| BC Scholars Support #ScholarStrike |
I did take 11 pages of notes.
As well, I have gone back over the notes to highlight some places with yellow colour, or big stars, or some kind of colourful asterisk reminder that I want to revisit an idea.
I want to say in response to the session by Bonita Lawrence called “Indigenous Responses to Black Resistance”, that I also felt an irresistible response to write her a letter, something I rarely feel when I listen to a speaker.
I want to say in response to the session by Bonita Lawrence called “Indigenous Responses to Black Resistance”, that I also felt an irresistible response to write her a letter, something I rarely feel when I listen to a speaker.
Her argument was tight, concise, compelling, and struck to the heart of why coalitions are so difficult. She said that her research has centered around her own indigenous identity. When she spoke she looked like a retiring academician to me. She posted a younger picture of herself, long dark luminous hair past her shoulders, like a triangle spreading out over her back. I don’t know if she would have called herself radical, but I love that word and I could imagine it cemented across her photo like someone might print a WANTED poster to be hung in on old west post office bulletin board.
I am going to have to accept that I could only watch the number of sessions I got in, and that I am not gong to be able to take in all of them. Sometimes that happens at a conference to me too, though not often.
I am going to have to accept that I could only watch the number of sessions I got in, and that I am not gong to be able to take in all of them. Sometimes that happens at a conference to me too, though not often.
In person I seem to be able to make myself walk to and sit in every session, but given the technology set up seems harm to me, I find it is just too many clicks away.
At one point the moderator to the session said, we’ve had 30,000 people tune in to #ScholarStrike. I think she also said 3,000 were attending the session I was watching. That’s one of the nice things about today’s electronics, you can count the number of people in an instant who are watching with you.
I wrote a note to at least 7 young people I know who are attending University right now, and alerted them to the fact that they could attend this free. I don’t think any of them did. As well, I know some professors who didn’t attend. They were busy with the extra burden of learning how to teach electronically, a hard task when much of their teaching skill is centered around watching their audience, picking up on cues of when people are lost and when it is time to move quickly ahead. I think they’ll miss seeing the twitch of an arm or the furrow of a brow on a student’s face as a signal that the lecture needs to broaden at that point. At any rate, I can see why people’s lives made it impossible for them to find the joy in those two days that I found.
It’s a week away now. I’m sure I’ll read my notes over one more time. There are some phrases I am not going to forget.
At one point the moderator to the session said, we’ve had 30,000 people tune in to #ScholarStrike. I think she also said 3,000 were attending the session I was watching. That’s one of the nice things about today’s electronics, you can count the number of people in an instant who are watching with you.
I wrote a note to at least 7 young people I know who are attending University right now, and alerted them to the fact that they could attend this free. I don’t think any of them did. As well, I know some professors who didn’t attend. They were busy with the extra burden of learning how to teach electronically, a hard task when much of their teaching skill is centered around watching their audience, picking up on cues of when people are lost and when it is time to move quickly ahead. I think they’ll miss seeing the twitch of an arm or the furrow of a brow on a student’s face as a signal that the lecture needs to broaden at that point. At any rate, I can see why people’s lives made it impossible for them to find the joy in those two days that I found.
It’s a week away now. I’m sure I’ll read my notes over one more time. There are some phrases I am not going to forget.
One of them is “1492 Land Back Lane.”
My typist just asked me what treaty occurred in 1492. I reminded her it rhymes with “Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” She laughed and shook her head in disbelief that she had missed that one. I also want to say that for the first time in all of my studies about Indigeneity the penny dropped for me about two different world views: the one that the settlers have as contrasted with the one that the Indigenous people share. The two major view points stem from the different creation myths they hold.
When I first began working at the University of Calgary, I was working in the University Library. The pay was low, but the perks were high. One of the benefits was that the department believed in educating its workers, so anytime we wanted time off to go to a lecture or a conference it was made available to us. I developed a taste for going to lectures, conferences, and talks at the Nickle Arts Museum. I was up to exploring new forms of knowledge, and I’m glad that I still have that taste even though I don’t work there anymore.
Arta
When I first began working at the University of Calgary, I was working in the University Library. The pay was low, but the perks were high. One of the benefits was that the department believed in educating its workers, so anytime we wanted time off to go to a lecture or a conference it was made available to us. I developed a taste for going to lectures, conferences, and talks at the Nickle Arts Museum. I was up to exploring new forms of knowledge, and I’m glad that I still have that taste even though I don’t work there anymore.
Arta
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