ABOUT
On March 7-10, 2018, we hosted an exciting symposium and multi-day workshop, Manifesting Resistance: Conversations about Intergenerational Memory Work across ‘the Americas,’ in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough), on Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg territory. This project was a collaboration between Aging Activisms (based at Trent University, led by May Chazan) and Critical MediArtStudio (cMAS, based at Simon Fraser University, led by Gabriela Aceves Sepúlveda).
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Over these four days, we gathered as a small group of scholars, artists and activists from across “the Americas” to begin a conversation about intergenerational memory work, resistance, and creative archive-making. We understand “the Americas” as a geographical demarcation constructed through colonialism: we use this imperfect language to acknowledge that participants hail from across Turtle Island and beyond, including from locations outside of the often singular, homogenous, US-centric conception of “America” and indeed outside of the “Global North.”
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In our opening symposium, we grounded our conversations in the land and territory in which we gathered – learning about some of the important activist remembering underway in Michi Saagiig territory and in Nogojiwanong. We carried forward from this opening the question of how land, place, and territory might shape all of our different memory projects, in varied and possibly unexpected ways. We then facilitated a collaborative media creation workshop, working in smaller groups to interview and photograph each other, to share in a series of circle conversations, and ultimately to co-create a collection of short media capsules about our memory projects. This work aims to push the boundaries of how we conceptualize activisms, archives, aging, and the intersections of these.
MANIFESTING RESISTANCE:
Conversations about Intergenerational Memory Work across 'the Americas'
Nogojiwanong (Peterborough), March 7-10, 2018
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Our gratitude to:
May, Gabriela, and the research team are so grateful to everyone who shared so much in this work. We thank the storytellers, Alice Olsen Williams, Monique Mojica, Funké Aladejebi, Heidi Burns, Jenn Cole, Karen Cordero, Alexandra Draghici, Pat Evans, Maddy Macnab, Monica Mayer, Michelle Lorna Nahanee, Carmen Rodriguez, and Jess Watkin. We are also so thankful for those who joined us for the opening symposium: Elder Shirley Ida Williams Pheasant, Anne Taylor, Nadine Changfoot, Julie Cosgrove, Rachelia Giardino, and Lara Kramer. We would also like to thank our team of researcher-facilitators: Melissa Baldwin, Heidi Burns, Jenn Cole, Emma Langley, Maddy Macnab, Michelle Nahanee, and Jo Shin.
We thank the First People’s House of Learning, Nozhem: First Peoples Performance Space, the Theatre on King, and Sadleir House for making space for us. We thank Grandfather’s Kitchen/the Gitigaan Project and Thomas Olszewski, The Seasoned Spoon and Aimee Blyth, and Black Honey and Lisa Dixon – for keeping us well fed. We thank Elder Shirley Williams for her blessings and ongoing support, Monique Mojica for her keynote workshop, the Peterborough International Women’s Day Committee (including the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, the Kawartha World Issues Centre, Lisa Clarke, Ziysah von Bieberstien, and others) for opening up their event to us, Brio Gusto, Karma’s Café, Hummingbird Chocolate, and Jeannine Crowe.
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We would also like to thank our funders, which included: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Trent Centre for Aging and Society, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and Simon Fraser University.