Celebrating National Indigenous History Month

Wednesday, June 1, 2022 12:00 am - Thursday, June 30, 2022 11:59 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

National Indigenous History Month Banner

National Indigenous History Month invites Indigenous Peoples to celebrate their history in the spirit of pride and preservation. For non-Indigenous Canadians, it is an opportunity to learn and show recognition of the role Indigenous Peoples have played and continue to play in shaping Canada. National Indigenous Peoples Day is a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. It is celebrated annually on June 21st, which coincides with the summer solstice. To celebrate National Indigenous History Month, Waterloo Architecture has compiled a list of resources that are available for its community members.


Events:

Myeengun Henry: Traditional Anishinaabe Teachings: Lecture (Free)
June 2, 2022 at 6:00PM EST
University of Waterloo

Please join us for this live webinar! Elder Myeengun Henry, Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, is Anishinaabe and a member from Deshkan Ziibiing. He is a former Chief of The Chippewas of the Thames First Nation and current elected Band Councilor. Myeengun is a traditional medicine healer and ceremony conductor, providing strategic leadership to University of Waterloo Faculty of Health in response to the Truth & Reconciliation Calls to Action.

Gabrielle Fayant: A Métis Experience & Empowering Youth: Lecture (Free)
June 9, 2022 at 6:00PM EST
University of Waterloo

Gabrielle Fayant is an off-Settlement Métis woman, whose family is from Fishing Lake Metis Settlement, AB, one of the 8 land-based Metis Settlements in Canada. Gabrielle is an award-winning woman for her work in community, youth empowerment, and Indigenous rights awareness. She has worked with several Indigenous and non-profit organizations and is currently a Helper and Co-Founder of Assembly of Seven Generations (A7G). A7G is an Indigenous owned and youth-led, non-profit organization focused on cultural support and empowerment programs/policies for Indigenous youth while being led by traditional knowledge and Elder guidance. Gabrielle is passionate about cultural resurgence and justice for all Indigenous peoples.

Jordan Williams White Eye: Anishinaabe Thunderbird Sundance of Ontario: Lecture (Free)
June 16, 2022 at 6:00PM EST
University of Waterloo

Jordan Williams White Eye is a passionate and dedicated Father from Bkejwanong First Nation. He is an Anishinaabe (Ojibway, Pottawatomi and Lenape) Spiritual Advisor, Knowledge Keeper, Pipe Carrier and Sweat Lodge Conductor, and he is the Caretaker/Leader of the Anishinaabe Thunderbird Sundance of Ontario. Jordan is Native Liaison with the Inn of the Good Shepherd in Sarnia, Ontario, and in addition to this role, offers cultural support to First Nation communities, community-based Indigenous agencies, colleges and universities, and provincial and federal correctional facilities across Ontario.

Susan Aglukark: Nomad-Correcting the Narrative: Lecture (Free)
June 23, 2022 at 6:00PM EST
University of Waterloo

Through songs, stories, film, photos and music videos, NOMAD will take you on the journey of the Canadian Inuit over the last several thousand years shedding light on some of the psychological and cultural impacts of rapid change in the North. NOMAD also gives a glimpse of the resilience and determination of a people who have maintained a quiet dignity despite near annihilation by disease and rapid change, a glimpse of the strengths of the traditional culture. While NOMAD helps us better understand the effects of colonization and generational trauma caused by the Canadian Governments Residential School/assimilation policy on Inuit, viewers also gain an understanding that we as Indigenous (artists) work with and from for our own respective healing and learning.

Navigating Indigenous Perspectives and Colonial Histories in Museum Collections and Displays: Lecture (Free)
June 29th, 2022 at 2:00PM EST
Culture, Things, and Empire Virtual Seminar Series

In early January 2022, an object showcase was installed at Camberwell College of Arts, as part of the Horniman Museum and Gardens’ Object in Focus programme. The showcase features three wooden models, carved with tattoo designs and collected in Borneo in the late 1890s. This collaborative paper outlines our early-career experiences in co-curating the showcase. It examines specific practical considerations, as well as the broader ethical dilemmas, in representing museum collections whilst reckoning with their colonial legacies. The museum’s extant documentation for the objects focussed on the career of collector Henry Ling Roth. In turn, the historical legacies of this archival knowledge had displaced any information on the tattooing cultures of the Kayan, the indigenous people whose designs and motifs are etched into the wooden models. Our initial interpretation ideas risked repeating the same displacement, as we explored how 19th-century collecting practices and ethnographic research had been instrumentalized in colonial modes of governance and taxation in Borneo. However, after we consulted with Adrian Jo Milang, a cultural ambassador and practitioner of Kayan art forms, it became imperative to communicate to UK audiences the historical importance of tattooing within Borneo, and to stress the continued vibrancy and relevance of traditional practices to Kayan people within the 21st century. The paper will consider the efficacy of decolonial methodologies that foreground the collection histories of objects, and that reinscribe the supposed authority of collectors and ethnographic museums as keepers of knowledge about material culture. While acknowledging the importance of confronting these difficult histories, we ultimately question how these stories might be told, so as to foreground the knowledge of indigenous partners, and to incorporate their perspectives in ethical, respectful and meaningful ways.

Indigenous History Month Performances: Performances (Free)
Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund

  • June 8th, 2022 at 2:00PM EST
  • June 15th, 2022 at 2:00PM EST
  • June 22nd, 2022 at 2:00PM EST
  • June 29th, 2022 at 2:00PM EST

In honour of Indigenous History Month, The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund is pleased to present a series of four events in celebration of the diversity of Indigenous Peoples across Canada. The themes of this year’s events are honour, commitment, and reflection. Throughout the month of June, we will be featuring Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, artists, and allies from Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick, and conclude with a special Canada-wide episode. All peoples in Canada, from coast to coast to coast, are invited to tune in for each of the events

Organized by:

Culture, Things, and Empire Virtual Seminar Series
Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund
University of Waterloo


Reading:

CBC | 108 Books written by Indigenous authors

Bookriot | Books written by Indigenous authors

Medium | Children's Reading List

Canada | #IndigenousReads Reading List


Media:

Podcasts: All My RelationsMissing & MurderedUnreserved and This Land.

CBC | Indigenous Documentary List


National Indigenous History Info:

Indigenous History