This third and final episode of season one is hosted by Matty Cervantes, and includes conversations with Elder Gerry Ambers, artist, knowledge keeper and healing worker, and Lindsay Delaronde, Audein Professor at the University of Victoria, artist and peacebuilder.
For this episode, we are going to reflect about reciprocity and relationship with Mother Earth. Furthermore, we will reflect on wisdom around Indigenous resistance and reclamation, the resurgence or revitalization of their cosmologies. And while experiencing ongoing colonialism and violence, we inquire, How to come into peace, how to repair?
Indigenous people globally through centuries have been in opposition of colonialism, have been resisting and surviving, dreaming and existing, coexisting in powerful ways.
We will also reflect about connection and diversity among humans and non-humans. The importance of pluralistic societies while also acknowledging the importance of healing, reconstructing, reweaving, resisting, revitalization and moving forward in good ways, with the diversity of flowers, the diversity of humans, and how we are all coming from different tribes, from different origins, but we are all remembering, and we are all interconnected.
Indigenous worldviews are offering to the world important guidance and opportunities to remember our origins stories, the source of our roots with love, peace, healing and compassion all together. Indigenous worldviews are offering us pathways of reciprocity, diversity and transforming planetary health. From our radical imagination, we can envision the revitalization of Indigenous Cosmologies for a healthier, beautiful, peaceful, and pluralistic world; reweaving with Mother Earth for Healing and Peace. As Gerry has reminded us “ together, all of us, with our indigenous knowledge, we can create a beautiful world”.
Gerry Ambers [24:15] is Kwakwaka’wakw from the ‘Namgis Nation in Alert Bay. She is the mother of five children and six grandchildren. She studied Northwest Coast Design with Kwakwaka’wakw artist Doug Cranmer, in a studio set up for art training in the basement of the former St. Michael’s Residential School in Alert Bay. Gerry gravitated towards activism and politics at an early age, becoming involved in the National Alliance for Red Power (NARP) in 1967. For 55 years, she has been an advocate for the rights and responsibilities of Indigenous People. Today, Gerry supports the work of art galleries, Indigenous organizations and post-secondary institutions on Vancouver Island as an Elder, mentor and healing worker.
Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde [4:29], is a Kanienke’haka, Mohawk Woman from Kahnawake. She holds a master’s degree in fine arts and a Master of Arts in the Indigenous Communities Counseling Psychology Program from the University of Victoria. She held the position as the first Indigenous artist in Residence from 2017-2019 and currently the Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator for the Fine Arts Department at UVIC. Her areas of research are Contemporary and Traditional First Nations visual art, Indigenous theatre and performance practices, expressive arts therapy examining decolonial methodologies in art. Her artistic practice focuses on Indigenous theatre, land-based performance art, collaborative practice, cultural resurgence and social/political activism through the arts. Her artistic media include photography, performance/theatre, movement/dance and visual studio arts.
We are grateful to co-produce this podcast on the unceded lands of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, in conversation with powerful community voices from across Turtle Island.
We thank the participants and their ancestors. We are grateful for the land, waters, sky, humans and non-humans below and above.
Podcast artwork based on a mural made by Carrielynn Victor Xémontalot, Scarlett Gonzalez, Deb Silver, Brismar Arlene Diaz, Marcia Maria and Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde.
Original score in this episode by Matty Cervantes.
Co-production by Matty Cervantes and Nicola Watts
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We thank CFUV, the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, the Center for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, the Global Pax Collective, and Open Space Art Gallery for theIr contributions to this podcast production.
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Territory acknowledgement
We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the University of Victoria stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
