Anti-Racism Reads: November event

Join the Anti-Racism Reads online event facilitated by Kelly Laurila, PhD Lecturer from the School of Social Work, Renison University College. 

Kelly will lead the group discussion on the book Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente.

When: Wednesday, November 2 | noon to 1 p.m.

Where: Microsoft Teams

Register: Graham Yeates

Find the book: Library's catalogue (Omni), W Store

About Kelly Laurila

Greetings. This is Kelly here. My spirit name is Mamaajii Inaazakonenjige, given to me by Algonquin Sundance Chief Harry Snowboy, and which means Moving Light. I am an Indigenous Sámi and Irish woman, sundancer, songcarrier, social worker, academic scholar, and lecturer who was born on the original territory of the Anishinaabe and Cree peoples in Northern Ontario, Canada known as Treaty 61 and I have over 28 years of experiences and teachings primarily from the Anishinaabe peoples. 

I acknowledge that my ancestry originates in Europe and that my Sámi grandfather, who was colonized in his original land (i.e., northern Finland), chose to emigrate and settle in Canada. This implicated him and my family in the continuing colonization of Indigenous peoples in Canada. I acknowledge that I am also implicated in ongoing colonization; although I hope that my learning and my Indigenous lens have helped me to see and confront social injustices.   

I left a counselling career of 23 years to pursue a doctoral degree with regard to Indigenous/police relations, an area I felt called to because of my work with an Indigenous drum circle and a police chorus. I completed this degree in 2018. I have been a long-time sessional lecturer at Renison University College and Wilfrid Laurier University in the school of Social Work. 

Until 2019, I was a songcarrier of an urban Indigenous women and girls’ drum circle for 17 years. This drum circle was passed to me by Indigenous community Elder, Jean Becker. I facilitate drum circles at Grand Valley Institution, a federal penitentiary for incarcerated Indigenous women and two spirit individuals. I have facilitated community outreach engagements of song and education pertaining to Indigenous/Settler relations, and I am a facilitator of circle pedagogy and dialogues pertaining to reconciliation and Indigenous/Settler relations.

Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance

Part memoir and part manifesto, Unreconciled is a stirring call to arms to put truth over the flawed concept of reconciliation, and to build a new, respectful relationship between the nation of Canada and Indigenous peoples. 
 
Jesse Wente remembers the exact moment he realized that he was a certain kind of Indian — a stereotypical cartoon Indian. He was playing softball as a child when the opposing team began to war-whoop when he was at bat. It was just one of many incidents that formed Wente's understanding of what it means to be a modern Indigenous person in a society still overwhelmingly colonial in its attitudes and institutions. 
 
As the child of an American father and an Anishinaabe mother, Wente grew up in Toronto with frequent visits to the reserve where his maternal relations lived. By exploring his family's history, including his grandmother's experience in residential school, and citing his own frequent incidents of racial profiling by police who'd stop him on the streets, Wente unpacks the discrepancies between his personal identity and how non-Indigenous people view him. 
 
Wente analyzes and gives voice to the differences between Hollywood portrayals of Indigenous peoples and lived culture. Through the lens of art, pop culture, and personal stories, and with disarming humour, he links his love of baseball and movies to such issues as cultural appropriation, Indigenous representation and identity, and Indigenous narrative sovereignty. Indeed, he argues that storytelling in all its forms is one of Indigenous peoples' best weapons in the fight to reclaim their rightful place. 
 
Wente explores and exposes the lies that Canada tells itself, unravels "the two founding nations" myth, and insists that the notion of "reconciliation" is not a realistic path forward. Peace between First Nations and the state of Canada can't be recovered through reconciliation— because no such relationship ever existed. 

— from Penguin Random House Canada