A Decolonization Recipe (Part 1): Time and Work

There is no simple or easy way to travel on this journey. It can hurt; it can feel like a homecoming; it will be uncomfortable. There are many parts or aspects to this journey. It will take time and work.

A beginning point for me was my introduction to the NAIITS: an indigenous learning community. I first began to connect with this group in 2016 and haven't been the same since. I will talk more about community in another post. It takes time and hard work.

When colonialism is the water you have swum in your entire life--and continue to swim in, it is difficult to exit. Throw out our Eurocentric idea(l)s of perfection and efficiency. The trail, the path, is not straight and that is Good. I don't think I will ever be finished here in this life... maybe that is the point.

Allow for time and lots of it. You will likely begin to understand time in a different way.

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The Colonial Gaze in Film: re-wathching Roland Joffé's "The Mission"

I thought I was so smart coming up with this idea after learning about the male gaze several years ago. Let us refresh our minds and re-examine the wiki defining "In feminist theory , the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world , in the visual arts and in literature , from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze. Last accessed July 22, 2021). There is an abundance of quality explanations and explorations on this topic from a variety of points of academic rigour. I personally will be using Mollie Bowman as a guide and model and inspiration. I need direction. Of course I will not be the first one to apply this technique to the ideas of a colonial gaze. This will be the first time that I have re-watched a film while critically reflect...

A Decolonization Recipe (Part 2): Reading Lists

Here is the thing, I have read a lot of books on this journey. It is important to once again, situate my context of knowing and learning. I am settler-Acadian. I grew up along the Wolastoq and now live in Mi'kma'ki, the part now currently known as Nova Scotia. I am a treaty person with the Peace and Friendship Treaties of 1725 forward. This journey is impossible without reading. I spent a lot of years reading almost exclusively from the voice of straight, white, men. I needed to spend a long time listening to different voices... decentering whiteness. Read indigenous authors. Read women authors. In an effort for manageability, I have put some of these books in different pots. It doesn't mean they should always stay there. Also, this is not an exhaustive list. I am not sure if I could pinpoint the reason I chose these other than they are my regular "you may want to start with some of these" books when I am asked about reading lists. I haven't even mentioned th...

Decolonizing the YWAM Values: a Personal Journey

"Decolonization once viewed as the formal process of handing over the instruments of government, is now recognized as a long-term process involving the bureaucratic, cultural, linguistic and psychological divesting of colonial power [1]” https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/a-brief-definition-of-decolonization-and-indigenization Jan 25/19 This re-understanding is my journey of decolonization, one rooted in my Acadian identity; rooted in my relationship with the Mi'kmaq, Wolastoqey, and Passamaquoddy; rooted in this Land.This is not an exercise in contextualization, or worse, appropriation, but in decolonization and unsettling the YWAM values for the benefit of all of YWAM. Decolonization is the responsibility of the colonizer more than the colonized. Decolonization is something you practice. These values aren't really values at all but words of the Lord spoken to YWAM. These values, as time goes on, the revelation of these Words continues to change and grow. They are ...

The Heart Grows

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