Indigenous Feast

April 3 & 4, 2023

Architecture Building

The School of Architecture’s first annual INDIGENOUS FEAST

Monday, April 3, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 4, 9:15 a.m., with the feast starting at 5:30 p.m.

Venue: Architecture Building, The Pit and various other rooms

Register: Registration is required, please register here.

 

The Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism’s first annual Indigenous Feast is a two-day workshop grounded in Indigenous knowledge through practices of storytelling, sharing, making, and becoming.

 

This event features 10 Indigenous knowledge keepers and makers who will host talks, fabrication and art workshops, food making and sharing. 

 

See the detailed program here.

 

This event is part of the 2023 Open Forum Lecture Series, led by Dr. Menna Agha and Dr. Omeasoo Wahpasiw.

ELDERS

Elder: Louise Bernice Halfe (Sky Dancer) was born in Two Hills, AB, raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. She is an award-winning writer and poet; she was Saskatchewan’s second Poet Laureate before becoming Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate in 2021.

Topic: Halfe will discuss Indigenous experiences within the ongoing history of colonialism and the resilience of Indigenous storytellers. Building upon her work as a poet, she will hold a workshop to reflect on her relationship with nêhiyawêwin, the Cree language, and the ways in which it informs her relationships and poetics.

 

Elder: Annie Smith St-Georges is a well-known Algonquin Traditional Elder born and raised on the Kitigan-Zibi reservation near Maniwaki, QC. Her teachings, which she has shared throughout Canada, are based on respecting Mother Earth and all its creatures, spirituality, and promoting harmony among each other.

Topic: Annie Smith St-Georges’s outstanding knowledge and experience will be shared with participants by means of storytelling. Participants in the workshop will, through active listening and non-western pedagogy, hear her experience raised as a trapper with her farmer mom and Algonquin father. She will discuss her implication of founding WAGE, a health centre for the integration of Aboriginal knowledge with medical science. She will also share her history as a founder of Kumik, the Elders Lodge (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) established in the early 1990s following the Oka crisis. She will stress the importance for Elders to share their teachings and knowledge. 

 

Elder: Maria Campbell is a Métis writer, playwright, and teacher. Her book, Halfbreed, is regarded as a foundational work of Indigenous literature in Canada.  She is currently the Elder in Residence at the Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research, Athabasca University. She is known as a caring, humorous, and warm presence.

Topic: Maria Campbell will greatly help in shaping the vision for the Feast through her experience as an educator, storyteller, and community organizer. She has worked with Aboriginal youths in community theatre; set up food and housing co-ops; facilitated women’s circles; advocated for the hiring and recognition of Native people in the arts and mentored many Indigenous artists working in all forms of the arts. She will also discuss her experiences and practices as an author, playwright, filmmaker, and English professor. Finally, Campbell will host a workshop reflecting on the role of storytelling and arts in pedagogy. 

List of the events offered at the Indigenous Feast

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