Translating Encounters: Connecting Indigenous Young People with Higher Education Through a Transmedia Project

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 10, Number 1

Translating Encounters: Connecting Indigenous Young People with Higher Education through a Transmedia Project

Kristine Alexander, University of Lethbridge Hudson Eagle Bear, Lethbridge College Tesla Heavy Runner, Lethbridge Catholic Central High School Ashley Henrickson, University of Lethbridge Taylor Little Mustache, University of Lethbridge Amy Mack, University of Alberta Jan Newberry, University of Lethbridge Tanya Pace-Crosschild, Opokaa’sin Early Intervention Society Erin Spring, University of Calgary Kaitlynn Weaver, University of Lethbridge

ABSTRACT

This piece draws on multiple voices to reflect on a collaborative project between university- based researchers and a local community organization devoted to Indigenous Black- foot children and their families. The evolution of the project from one based on photo- elicitation to one devoted to building a digital storytelling library meant a methodological shift to acknowledge the role of translation in encounters between university researchers and community practitioners, between Elders and youth, and between settlers and Indigenous people. Our experience provides lessons on the importance of taking seriously the moments when difference is encountered and translated during the research and community-building process.

Keywords: collaborative research, ethical space, Canada, Indigenous, intergeneration al, settler colonialism

Raising Spirit is a collaborative pro- sion to include a digital storytelling library ject between a small university on the Ca- and arts-based education and exhibition, nadian prairies and a local non-profit dedi- this project has evolved to become a trans- cated to supporting Indigenous children and media collaboration with significant impli- their families. Our work is based in Leth- cations for methods. Ultimately, we came to bridge, a small regional hub located in see that what we learned methodologically Treaty 7 territory in Alberta, an area de- was as important as any of the project fined by settlers that includes the traditional goals. We discovered that it was the mo- lands of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Nakoda ments of encounter requiring translation (Stoney), and Tsuut’ina nations. It is also across difference that were central to the just over 60 kilometers away from the larg- process of building relationships in our est Indigenous reserve in all of Canada. community-university partnership. From its beginning as a photo- In the wake of the release of the fi- elicitation project on local childrearing val- nal report of the Truth and Reconciliation ues among Blackfoot families to its expan- Commission of Canada (TRC, 2015) on the

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 10, Number 1 genocidal legacy of colonialism and resi- INSTITUTE FOR CHILD AND YOUTH dential schools, we describe a series of STUDIES translating encounters that were produced by our methods. We argue that these some- University of Lethbridge is the big- times unexpected moments of encounter gest employer in our city, and the majority have the potential to produce an ethical of its faculty, students, and staff are non- space of collaboration across difference. Indigenous—a fact that in many ways is a While difference in this context refers pri- result of the persistent underfunding of edu- marily to differences between settler and cation for Indigenous children and youth in Indigenous and between young and older, it Alberta and across Canada. This underfund- also marks the difference produced by uni- ing of education and services for Indige- versity researchers at different levels inter- nous children, which the Canadian Human acting with high school students and with Rights Tribunal recently condemned as an young children attending an early childhood example of racial discrimination, is one of program. Some of our richest work hap- the numerous ways that settler colonialism pened when graduate students, undergradu- continues to shape the lives of Indigenous ate students, high school students, teens and young people and families in 21st century young children encountered one another Canada (Fontaine, 2016). Since its estab- and sought to translate between worlds. In lishment in 1867, the Canadian settler na- this preliminary report, we provide a multi- tion-state has sought to erase and displace perspectival view of what we learned in the Indigenous populations in order to control research process and the unsettling and land and natural resources. Indigenous chil- transformative effects of translation be- dren were—and continue to be—central to tween different subject positions. By detail- the Canadian government’s assimilatory ing this process from the perspective of dif- vision, and like their counterparts in other ferent members of the research team, we settler societies, they have been targeted hope to share lessons on the importance of through child abduction, attempts at reli- these seemingly mundane moments in the gious conversion, and what the late anthro- research process in building effective uni- pologist Patrick Wolfe called versity and community collaboration. “resocialization in total institutions such as We begin by briefly introducing the missions or boarding schools” (2006, p. context of Truth and Reconciliation in Can- 388). The best-known Canadian example of ada before considering the implications of Indigenous child removal is the network of translating encounters. Next, individual government-funded and church-run residen- team members describe the encounters that tial schools that separated approximately characterized each stage of the project. The 150,000 Indigenous children from their sections unfold chronologically to demon- families and communities between the late strate the growing recognition that our most 19th and late 20th centuries. important results were in fact these encoun- The traumatic and disruptive effects ters themselves, as they illustrate the critical of colonialism in general and residential pedagogical value of productive but uncom- schooling in particular were explicitly ad- fortable translation across multiple sites of dressed in 2015, with the release of the re- difference. port of the Truth and Reconciliation Com- mission of Canada (2015). The TRC’s com- TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: WHY missioners spent six years listening to the UNIVERSITIES AND YOUNG PEOPLE testimony of survivors, and their final re- MATTER IN CANADA port calls residential schooling an act of DR. KRISTINE ALEXANDER cultural genocide and insists that (HISTORY) AND DR. JAN NEWBERRY “colonialism remains an ongoing process” (ANTHROPOLOGY), in Canada (p. 45). In addition to document-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 10, Number 1 ing these institutions’ history of harm and ple. It also meshed with the University’s injustice, the report also includes 94 Calls mandate to provide its students with a liber- to Action “to redress the legacy of residen- al education emphasizing cross-disciplinary tial schools and advance the process of Ca- critical thinking, student involvement in nadian reconciliation” (p. 319). The TRC’s research, and engaged, socially responsible Calls to Action make it clear that Canadian citizenship. The evolution of our project has governments, educators, health care provid- been an exercise in respectful relationship- ers, legal systems, and universities need to building through which all of us have had to do better. Our project has been shaped by mindfully negotiate power relationships and this political, social, and economic context. the history of the modern university as a colonial institution (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012). TRANSLATING ENCOUNTER This work, designed to meet the needs of an AS METHOD Indigenous community organization, has JAN NEWBERRY allowed knowledge and skills to flow in AND KRISTINE ALEXANDER multiple directions. We soon discovered, however, that this required translation work As Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang on all sides. (2012) have noted, media coverage and The Raising Spirit team included mainstream educational research tends to students and faculty working in anthropolo- depict Indigenous communities in two main gy, history, children’s literature, digital ways: As “at-risk” peoples (in crisis, on the studies, and education. Project staff has in- verge of extinction, engaging in self- cluded professors, post-docs, graduate and destructive behaviours) or as “asterisk” undergraduate students, high school stu- peoples (“meaning they are represented by dents, agency staff, and members of local an asterisk in large and crucial data sets, Indigenous communities, including Elders. many of which are conducted to inform Finding a way to work together required public policy that affects their lives”; p. 22). multiple moments of translation and con- Frustrated with this reductive, settler- nection across difference, not just the trans- focused and often negative approach to de- lation of Blackfoot child-rearing values at scribing Indigenous families and cultures, the center of the project. For example, uni- we decided to work together to investigate versity-based team members were trained in Indigenous (in this case, mostly Blackfoot) archival research, literary analysis, and eth- families and child-rearing practices to coun- nography. These differences alone can be ter “asterisk” and “at-risk” discourses. In obstacles to collaboration. Here they were designing this project, we decided that un- compounded by the differences between like conventional “extractive” academic those working inside the university and research, which takes knowledge from com- those working in a social service setting. munities and repackages it for academic We discovered early on the constraints of consumption, the work would instead be different reporting procedures, time frames, driven by the needs of University of Leth- audiences, and legitimating authorities. bridge’s community partner, Opokaa’sin Moreover, university team members are Early Intervention Society. primarily settler researchers, while the so- The beginning of our project coin- cial service agency is staffed primarily by cided with the establishment of the Institute Indigenous peoples and serves local First for Child and Youth Studies at University Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) commu- of Lethbridge, a multidisciplinary institute nities. Their clients were mostly people composed of faculty, students, and commu- who identify as Blackfoot, and yet the dif- nity members with a shared interest in do- ferences between Kainai and Piikani peo- ing interdisciplinary, curiosity-based, and ples of the Blackfoot Confederacy are sig- policy-relevant research about young peo- nificant locally. Even further, the Indige-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 10, Number 1 nous population served by this early child- strating a kind of double-voiced expertise, hood learning centre is predominantly ur- one that had them reflecting on their own ban, in some contrast to the rural population lives and circumstances, but also reaching living on the nearby reserve. Finally, and across to those in a different position in pur- perhaps most importantly for this work, as- suit of a shared understanding. For exam- sociated with a university institute for child ple, young high school students had to artic- and youth studies were differences based on ulate an understanding of their own culture age: adult, youth, child, Elder. to settler university researchers to help ori- As the project developed, the lack of ent them to the community they were enter- clear boundaries around “the community” ing, even as these young people sought to under study became a key reason for focus- understand and explore their own relation- ing on the encounters themselves as part of ships to tradition and connection to land. our methodology. In other words, and as The space produced by this transla- will be described below, we found that it tion work resonates with the ethical space was when the young and the older were of engagement described by Ermine (2007), brought together in an encounter that when two societies with different boundaries between these groups were rec- worldviews seek to engage one another. We ognized, made real, and bridged. Rather elaborate this space by noting the multiple than any clear, “authentic” categorization of forms of difference at play here and by in- people or community, we found that identi- cluding conceptual work as well as ethical fication took place during encounters that and moral work. In the research described required translation in at least two direc- here, the translational encounter is under- tions. This was equally the case when In- stood to produce a collaborative sphere of digenous and settler researchers worked to co-conceptualization (Rappaport, 2008). collect field data and identify important That is to say, the translation work pro- themes. And again, when high school stu- duced in these encounters represented col- dents worked alongside graduate students laborative analysis as well. This resulted in and Elders from the community, transla- the production of a kind of third space tions across differences were effected even (Putnam, 2000; cf. Bhabha, 2004): a critical as these differences were recognized in pedagogical and ethical space for recogni- these encounters. tion, renegotiation, and possible reconcilia- Recent work on translation in an- tion of epistemic, ontological, and ethical thropology highlights its character as an worlds. The production of these kinds of “event-based, real-time practice” (Gal, spaces is particularly pressing in the context 2015, p. 229) that occurs across difference. of ongoing settler colonialism and the Calls Gal notes how such translational encounters to Action of the TRC. require a double voice, one that is both for- eign and domestic. In other words, these PHOTO ENCOUNTERS interactional accomplishments require that TANYA PACE-CROSSCHILD speakers “double voice their knowledge (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, rather than simply inhabiting their profes- OPOKAA’SIN EARLY INTERVENTION sional role. They take on a different voice SOCIETY) AND JAN NEWBERRY and role than they would with co- experts” (p. 233). One principle of our work The origins of Raising Spirit predate has been to recognize the expertise of not the TRC by several years. The project be- only local Indigenous people, but also the gan with shared questions about the effect young; this approach to translation was of the global push to support Early Child- quite productive. In other words, when hood Education and Care (ECEC) for Indig- young Indigenous people translated for set- enous child-rearing values and the implica- tler university students, they were demon- tion of renewed attention to young children

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 10, Number 1 in this decolonizing moment (Newberry, knowledge of Blackfoot language and the 2010; Newberry, 2012; Preston, Cottrell, protocols necessary for speaking to Elders. Pelletier, & Pearce, 2012). Jan has conduct- These encounters all required trans- ed ethnographic research on early child- lation. Parents were asked to translate the hood in Indonesia, and Tanya is the execu- meaning of the photographs they took. In a tive director of an agency devoted to Indig- series of encounters at powwow, the stu- enous children and their families. Based on dents asked passersby to use the same pho- our shared interest in articulating local child tographs to translate their own child-rearing -rearing values to aid early childhood pro- experiences. In staff members’ interviews grams and challenge globalized frameworks with Elders, translation in and across the and continuing settler colonialism, we de- Blackfoot language was necessary. At each signed a collaborative photo-elicitation pro- stage, differences within the broader Black- ject. Briefly, photo-elicitation uses images foot community were confronted and medi- to provoke responses from the viewer ated, which produced spaces for discussion (Pauwel, 2015). The elicitation approach is about the unspoken child-rearing values based on the idea that values are generally disrupted by residential schooling and colo- not articulated and reproduced as a written nial violence. By using the photographs as a corpus of organized ideas. Instead, they ex- prompt, young Blackfoot researchers asked ist as everyday, mundane knowledge shared family members, Elders, and strangers to informally and anecdotally. Following articulate their own experience and exper- Kärtner et al. (2007) who elicited parental tise as an act of translation and collabora- “ethnotheories” through photographs, we tive analysis. These encounters were mo- used pictures of local Indigenous (primarily ments of recognition that were both heart- Blackfoot) families engaging in child- breaking and empowering. We heard from rearing practices as a prompt for others to Elders about pride, generosity, and the im- describe the values represented. portance of family in teaching values, even Eight parents and caregivers, includ- as we heard stories of institutional violence ing several agency staff members, were in residential schools aimed at “killing the asked to photograph everyday moments of Indian in the child.” child rearing. Choosing to work with partic- Beginning in 2014-15, the project ipant-photographers added a layer of data gained momentum with new personnel, new on local values (what did they choose to funding, and a new focus: The production photograph and why), which expanded this of a digital storytelling library for the use of collaborative project to include auto- our community partner in programming ethnographic, participatory action research. with young people. The library would in- These photographs were then used as clude not just the photographs, but record- prompts about childhood and child-rearing ings of storytelling by Elders that would values in semi-structured interviews. Two then be used in programming for children, Indigenous undergraduate students inter- teens, and other members of the larger In- viewed the participant photographers to digenous community. This new work meant draw out the implications of the choices more personnel and a greater need for train- they had made. They also took a subset of ing across the university and agency set- these photographs to powwows in the his- tings. These encounters through training toric Blackfoot Territory where they gath- became an important part of our work. ered responses from self-selected passersby. Interviews were also conducted with Black- FIELDWORK ENCOUNTERS foot Elders whose wisdom is recognized as TAYLOR LITTLE MUSTACHE authoritative. Indigenous agency staff con- (UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION ducted these interviews because of their STUDENT) AND AMY MACK (PHD STUDENT)

evance for higher education in the era of One of the key components of this reconciliation. Amy, a graduate student, project is the emphasis on mentorship and mentored Taylor, an undergraduate student, training that occurred for all team members on anthropological methods, such as inter- in the field. In June 2016, we headed into viewing and participant observation during the field, taking with us the training we re- the interview process, as well as after when ceived from Drs. Jan Newberry, Kristine writing field notes. Taylor, who is Black- Alexander, and Erin Spring, then a postdoc- foot, along with the organization’s staff and toral fellow at University of Lethbridge. Elders, mentored Amy, who is a settler, on Our goal was to gather stories from Indige- traditional values, teaching her about proper nous young people and Elders for a digital protocol and contextualizing the stories. library to be used in our partner organiza- These reciprocal training experiences gave tion’s educational programing. The library Indigenous and settler University research- was and is meant to be interactive, accessi- ers confidence in the field and provided a ble, and child-friendly. To suit these needs, foundation for training Hudson and Tesla, we selected the online platform ThingLink two Blackfoot high school students who (https://www.thinglink.com), which allows joined the project as youth researchers (see users to annotate images with audio, video, below). links, and other images. Later in the summer, we went on The staff at Opokaa’sin asked that field trips to cultural sites in Blackfoot terri- we base the library on the idea of the Medi- tory. We listened to Elders share stories at cine Wheel, a symbol that holds cultural historical sites; picked sweet grass, choke- significance throughout Indigenous North cherries, and wild mint; visited an im- America and is used throughout the organi- portant sacred site; and attended ceremo- zation’s educational programming. The nies. The Elders we sat with told stories of Medicine Wheel is divided into four quad- the land and how it came to be; they also rants: belonging, independence, mastery, taught us how to look for the lessons within and generosity. After a multi-day workshop each story. Being out in the field gave us with Elders, our team added a selection of the opportunity to record these stories on a Blackfoot values to each quadrant. After personal and interactive level, rather than exploration and discussion in both English the standard structured interview approach and Blackfoot, the Elders explained and of question and answer. This allowed us to explored what each of these quadrants collect data while also creating a strong meant to them. For example, independence foundation of community and gaining new is expressed through “iikaakimatt,” or “try traditional teachers. On these trips, Tesla hard,” and belonging can be achieved in and Hudson were encouraged to put their part through “apomikit” or “transfer of academic training into practice with the knowledge.” These values became the guidance of the team. When other team words we used to code and understand the members joined, our academic abilities and data and stories we were given during our the young people’s connections with the time in the field. university were further developed. This stage of fieldwork began when Once again, these encounters al- undergraduate researchers interviewed In- lowed us to create a collective sphere digenous children using the photo elicita- (Rappaport, 2008) of shared experiences, tion approach of Tanya and Jan’s original vulnerability, and transformation through project. In these fieldwork encounters, reciprocal mentorship and training. Every- where we learned about the rich history and one had a role to play in training one anoth- stories of the Blackfoot, we found that er. It was in those long car rides out into the training occurred both in research methods prairies that these transformations took and in traditional teachings, which hold rel- place, and true collaboration was achieved.

We brought these teachings and experienc- The research team kept extensive es back to campus, and the process of shar- field notes through a project blog. The fol- ing and gifting knowledge continued into lowing excerpt from Tesla’s field notes the following phases of our research pro- highlights what she learned and reflects on cess as we worked towards completing the how her involvement in the project has library. shaped her thinking about the future: I got the chance to hang out with TRAINING ENCOUNTERS some anthropologists over the sum- DR. ERIN SPRING AND TAYLOR LIT- mer and got a look at what they use TLE MUSTACHE WITH their knowledge to do including, TESLA HEAVY RUNNER AND HUD- field work, interviews, community SON EAGLE BEAR participation, all of what I have (HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS) been doing over the course of the summer. We started off with learn- As a postdoctoral fellow, my role in ing of what being in the field is like the Raising Spirit project was to provide and how to observe everything and research training for settler and Indigenous how observations are one of the im- high school, undergraduate, and graduate portant key things in field work so students. This training took place over a we got lots of practice with it then series of encounters on the land, within the we started with interviews. Inter- community, and at University of Leth- viewed small children, youth, bridge. Our communal office on campus adults, and elders, all which were was a safe space where all team members important to collect info from […] I socialized, wrote, read, and discussed the am so lucky to have got the chance project. The training that took place there to be a part of this project and use was enriched by the disciplinary diversity the skills that I have learnt for of our research team, and by the involve- things I may want to achieve after ment—both on- and off-campus—of El- high school. This summer has in- ders, staff, and children from our partner spired me to think about Post- organization and university staff and stu- secondary, something of which I dents. had no clue about before and at least In the summer of 2016, the project now I have some idea. I hope to team hired Indigenous high school students, come back to this project in the fu- Hudson and Tesla. They eventually became ture. the youth leaders of our ethnographic sum- Similarly, Hudson’s field notes highlight mer fieldwork, where we collected stories the skills he developed: on the land about Blackfoot culture, history, I went sweet grass picking for the and language for the digital library. Prior to first time this summer, and I was fieldwork, we spent time together on cam- taught which is real sweet grass and pus, where Tesla and Hudson received which is fake sweet grass. When training in the research process including you are sweet grass picking, you protocol, ethics, participant observation, have to sit there and be patient […] interviewing, transcribing, coding, and if you rush to pick then you could analysis. Involvement in this project—and get tricked by Napi. I also had the particularly in its land-based fieldwork— honour to help out at the Sundance allowed Hudson and Tesla to become more with a few of the society members integrated in their own Blackfoot communi- and […] attended some sacred cere- ty. It also allowed them to see University of monies which was a great honor for Lethbridge as a place where they belong. me because it opened my eyes to be a part of something that my people

have been doing for hundreds of Taylor is now embarking on a Bachelor of years […] Personally for me it was Education degree, Hudson is enrolled in his just a great and unbelievable experi- first year of community college, and Tesla ence because I learned way more is entering her final year of high school. For about my culture then [sic] I thought them, the encounters facilitated by the pro- I would have. If I have the oppor- ject have produced new forms of expertise tunity to be a researcher ever again, within academia and the Blackfoot commu- I’d definitely take it up because you nity. can meet a lot of interesting people. The only thing about it is that you ART AS ENCOUNTER have to pay very close attention to ASHLEY HENRICKSON (MASTER’S stories. STUDENT IN HISTORY) AND In their field notes, Hudson and Tesla iden- KAITLYNN WEAVER (MASTER’S STU- tify themselves as researchers and outline DENT IN CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND how their imagined future trajectories have POLITICAL THOUGHT) developed through a series of encounters occurring across time and space, both on- We joined the Raising Spirit team in and off-campus. Using the skills they had September 2016 to spearhead the final developed over the past two years, Tesla phase of the project: an art exhibit, “Elders and Hudson also worked to build the digital of the Future,” which was held at a local library, thereby increasing their own sense community arts centre in September and of cultural belonging and research capacity, October 2017. This aspect of the project and ensuring a closing of the intergenera- was funded by a grant intended to com- tional knowledge transmission circle. memorate the 150th anniversary of Canadi- Taylor’s field notes, which describe an confederation. However, for many Indig- her experiences speaking about the project enous communities, the anniversary of a at academic conferences in Calgary and colonial act of Indigenous dispossession Vancouver, explain the importance of the and settler nation-building was not an occa- project in similar terms: sion for celebration. Therefore, “Elders of This experience was profound and the Future”—co-created by a multigenera- humbling; it felt as though I got to tional and culturally diverse team of com- see a glimpse of my future by pre- munity members and University students— senting alongside great educators. I marked the anniversary of Confederation got to meet Cindy Blackstock [a not by celebrating nationalism, but by high- prominent public critic of the treat- lighting and celebrating the resiliency of ment of Indigenous children]…. Indigenous families and communities while This presentation changed my per- looking forward to a future characterized by spective completely and better clari- reconciliation and resurgence. fied and supported the reason why I Young children under 5 also con- too am trying to make a difference tributed to the exhibition by creating collab- for F.N.M.I. people specifically orative canvases using diverse materials youth. At some points I did feel including shaving cream, glue, and assorted overwhelmed by the high level of household items. The children clearly had educated people and felt as though I motivation and vision for creating their art, was not yet supposed to be there. and in order to capture this process, we However that changed quickly when tried to interview the children about their I made new friends like Erin and work. However, we faced challenges creat- Amy who changed my whole way ing relationships with the children, because of thinking and encouraged me to we were outsiders as infrequent visitors, continue on with my education. settler university researchers, and adults.

The combination of these factors hindered expected effect of encounters in the re- our ability to translate our questions in a search process that required us to translate way that resonated with the children. In- across and therefore at least temporarily stead, children demonstrated acts of refusal bridge differences. This process has led us by choosing not to tell us about their pro- to take seriously how method as a process is cess or personal motivation for their work. as significant as the result of data analysis. For example, when asked who was depicted Our experience provides lessons for univer- in his art piece, one child promptly replied, sities working with local communities “It’s pink.” This was quite obvious, as the about the importance of slowing down to only colours provided to the children were notice and be attentive to the moments numerous shades of pink. This demonstrat- when difference is encountered and trans- ed to us that the children were not yet com- lated in the research and community- fortable sharing personal information about building process. their lives due to our outsider status. Alt- Across the Raising Spirit project, we hough many of the children refused to share observed that our ideas about the their motivations, the process of collabora- “Blackfoot” community dissolved as we tive art-making provided a step towards fu- came to recognize the differences within ture positive encounters, which will further based on generation, geography, and posi- allow us to translate between cultures and tion within the project. This process was generations. just as evident for the university team. As Visitors to the exhibit, which also professors, post-docs, graduate, undergrad- functioned as the official debut of the com- uate, and high school students, we engaged pleted digital library, were first greeted by a the very young and those who were older. large Medicine Wheel composed of the art Our work required translation across our by Indigenous youth and images from the own academic positions as we collaborated photo-elicitation project. Much of the art with one another but also across age-based showcased in “Elders of the Future” was experience as we worked with children and created during a series of art workshops. Elders. Our positions as producers and re- These workshops included a tour of the ceivers of knowledge shifted with each en- University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, which counter. We learned to acknowledge the at that time featured the work of Mi’kmaw power we were given because of our cate- artist Ursula Johnson. Touring the art gal- gory of identity in some situations and to lery and viewing Johnson’s art, which cri- cede authority and accept our vulnerability tiques the appropriation of Indigenous art- in others. When young people refuse to an- work by museum curators, raised questions swer researcher questions, when youth be- about how academic and cultural institu- come experts rather than university re- tions can be used to resist colonialism. To- searchers, when recognized categories of gether, our multigenerational settler and identity shatter in the face of discovered Indigenous curation team produced another sameness, and when our values are chal- ethical space facilitated by the translation of lenged, we are unsettled. Many now call for encounters across cultures and generations. unsettling the settler in post-TRC Canada “Elders of the Future” drew a broad audi- (Regan, 2010; Manuel & Derrickson, ence, and opened to standing-room-only 2015). Our work on the Raising Spirit pro- crowds. ject has done this as well, for settler and Indigenous, university and community, WHAT WE LEARNED young and old alike. It was in the third space created through the various encoun- Data collection for Raising Spirit ters that comprised this project that we each has just finished, and analysis will soon engaged in acts of translation that unsettled begin. Here we have contemplated the un- categories of identity, experience, and val-

© Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Copyright © by Indiana State University. All rights reserved. ISSN 1934-5283 Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education Volume 10, Number 1 ues. We learned in this project to recognize sia. Economy and Society, 39(3), and respect this ethical space where we not 403-426. only collaborated on conceptualizing values Newberry, J. (2012). Durable assemblage: but also reflected on our own values and the Early childhood education in Indo- possibility for transforming them. nesia. Asia Research Institute Work- Ultimately, as universities pursue ing Papers Series, 194, 1-24. community partnerships, the possibility for Pauwels, L. (2015). ‘Participatory’ visual transformation in their relationship requires research revisited: A critical- accepting the unsettling aspects of their en- constructive assessment of episte- counters and making space for the two-way mological, methodological and so- translation necessitated by them. By ac- cial activist tenets. Ethnography, 16 knowledging the double-voicing in transla- (1), 95-117. tion as part of productive pedagogy rather Preston, J. P., Cottrell, M., Pelletier, T, & than something to be managed, the power Pearce, J. V. (2012). Aboriginal ear- of these encounters can transform both part- ly childhood education in Canada: ners in participatory research. Issues of context. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 10(1), 3-18. doi: 10.1177/1476718X11402753 REFERENCES Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. community. New York, NY: Simon New York, NY: Routledge. and Schuster. Ermine, W. (2007). The ethical space of Rappaport, J. (2008). Beyond participant engagement. Indigenous Law Jour- observation: Collaborative ethnogra- nal, 6(1), 193-203. phy as theoretical innovation. Col- Fontaine, T. (2016, Jan 26). Canada dis- laborative Anthropologies, 1(1), 1- criminates against children on re- 31. doi: 10.01353/cla.0.0014 serves, tribunal rules. CBC News. Regan, P. (2010). Unsettling the settler Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/ within: Indian residential schools, news/indigenous/canada- truth telling, and reconciliation in discriminates-against-children-on- Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press. reserves-tribunal-rules-1.3419480 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Gal, S. (2015). Politics of translation. An- Canada. (2015). Honouring the nual Review of Anthropology, 44, truth, reconciling for the future: 225-240. Summary of the final report of the Kärtner, J., Keller, H., Lamm, B., Abels, Truth and Reconciliation Commis- M., Yovsi, R. D., & Chaudhary, N. sion of Canada. Winnipeg, MB: (2007). Manifestations of autonomy Truth and Reconciliation Commis- and relatedness in mothers’ accounts sion of Canada. of their ethnotheories regarding Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decoloni- child care across five cultural com- zation is not a metaphor. Decoloni- munities. Journal of Cross-Cultural zation: Indigeneity, Education & Psychology, 38(5), 613-628. Society, 1(1), 1-40. Manuel, A., & Derrickson, G. C. R. M. Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing (2015). Unsettling Canada: A na- Methods: Research and Indigenous tional wake-up call. Toronto, ON: People. Dunedin, NZ: University of Between the Lines. Otago Press. Newberry, J. (2010). The global child and Wolfe, P. (2006). Settler colonialism and non-governmental governance of the elimination of the Native. Jour- the family in Post-Suharto Indone-

nal of Genocide Research, 8(4), 387 -409.

AUTHOR NOTE

Kristine Alexander, Department of History, University of Lethbridge; Hudson Eagle Bear, Lethbridge Col- lege; Tesla Heavy Runner, Lethbridge Catholic Central High School; Ashley Henrickson, Department of History, University of Lethbridge; Taylor Lit- tle Mustache, Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge; Amy Mack, Department of Anthropology, Univer- sity of Alberta; Tanya Pace- Crosschild, Opokaa’sin Early Inter- vention Society; Erin Spring, Werk- lund School of Education, University of Calgary; Kaitlynn Weaver, Cultur- al, Social, and Political Thought Pro- gram, University of Lethbridge. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jan Newberry, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, T1K 3M4. Email: [email protected]