By Maddie Savage
From Thursday March 5th to March 7th the Indigenous Studies Department is hosting Anishinaabe Maanjidowin: The Continued Spirit of Indigenous Studies – the event is a celebration of 45 years of the Indigenous Studies program, as well as an acknowledgement of those who started and contributed to the program and departmnet.
Professor of Indigenous Studies, Tasha Beeds, sat down with Lambda to talk about the events happening at the University of Sudbury, and share information about the university’s Indigenous Studies program.
On Thursday, March 5th the Professor Emeritus granting ceremony for Dr. Jim Dumont and Dr. Emily Faries took place. According to Beeds, Dr. Jim Dumont “is one of the most leading intellectual and cultural leaders that the Anishinaabeg Nation has.”
“We want to recognize that on a formal level he used to teach here, he taught at the university of Sudbury in this department for almost 25 years.”
On Friday March 6th there was a Day of Gathering with Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
“It’s really about an opportunity to hear who we are, listen to our Knowledge Holders, our Elders and just get the opportunity to celebrate.”
On Saturday, March 7th there will be a gala catered by Hiawatha’s and MC’d by Edward George and Sarain Fox.
“Edward was voted one of the change makers, he received an Indigenous change maker award. An international award,” Beeds said.
“He is recognized for his movement, particularly with his work with the water. He canoed the Great Lakes to raise awareness about the importance of the water and keeping the water clean. It is really empowering for us to have that voice to represent Anishinaabe youth,” Beeds said.
“Sarain is just an incredible, accomplished young person. She’s the host of a television series called Future History. She is a dancer, choreographer, activist, and television host and she combines those various mediums to amplify the voice of Indigenous peoples.”
Beeds explained that the discipline of Indigenous Studies is now international, taking place in New Zealand, Australia, and across the States.
“Its roots are here at the University of Sudbury, in addition to Trent University. So, we call it Anishinaabe Maanjidowin: the Continued Spirit of Indigenous Studies.”
“At the core of who we are is that connection to the spirit and the spirit of all living things. This gala is an opportunity for us to showcase to the next generation, to the children because we are always taught to look ahead 7 generations,” Beeds said.
“We’re honouring a number of people. We are looking at the people that started the Indigenous studies department here.”
“There was a time when we were not allowed in universities, we were not considered to be human, we did not have the right to vote, our children were taken away, it was illegal for us to be politically organized, it was illegal for a lawyer to work with us. So out of this great subjugation and oppression, these are the Elders that were like, ‘how can we look ahead, what does the future need from us’.”
“People want to run us over for standing up for our rights. All you have to do is read the comments section in any Canadian newspaper to see the kind of ignorance directed towards us and the kind of racism,” Beeds said.
“That stems from the fact that people are not educated, they don’t know who we are. For me this opportunity to host this gala is about celebrating that resilience.”
“I think it’s really pivotal right now for all people including non-Indigenous people to understand who we are and to see what we have to offer and what we have always had to offer.”
“For our own students, our own Indigenous people who come to our discipline, some of us have been out of community, some of us lost those community connections, not by any fault of our own, but because of this colonial system that was intent on destroying us,” Beeds said.
“Indigenous studies is about our continued presence as Indigenous people and it celebrates that and it looks at those hard truths.”
Beeds explained that the proceeds and donations will be going to an organization called Akinoomoshin.
“Akinoomoshin is grassroots Indigenous people who wanted to educate our own children in our own school system.”
For more information about the events you can visit https://usudbury.ca/en/news/03-2020-the-continued-spirit-of-indigenous-studies. The events will also be lived streamed on the University of Sudbury’s Facebook page.