Dialogues4Change Event Report: November 2023

Dialogues 4 Change Indigenous Youth in Conversation with Adult Allies

More Than Words Culminating Event Report Tiohtià:ke

2023

Introduction Between November 12th and 14th, the More Than Words (MTW) project brought together the young Indigenous people working in the three project sites, their supporters and others engaged in Indigenous youthled work for a three-day event called Dialogues 4 Change. This report firstly introduces MTW before moving into an introduction of the event and its objectives, summarizing each day, the report ends on a brief discussion of the next steps for the MTW project.

Girls Expressing Themselves Through Art (GET ART)

More THan words

Young Indigenous Women's Utopia (YIWU)

Break the Silence: Be the Change

MTW is a 4-year project which is part of a national $50 million GenderBased Violence Program of Promising Practices to Support Survivors and their Families. MTW investigates and learns from the use of Indigenous-focused youth-led survivor engagement through the arts, looking at the impacts on the producers themselves (young people) and on their families and communities in relation to their experiences of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). MTW works with Indigenous young people from 3 different and distinct communities and cultures; Eskasoni, located on Cape Breton Island within the Unama’gi district of Mi’kmaq territory (Nova Scotia, Atlantic Canada) is the site of Break the Silence: Be the Change, Treaty 6, Saskatoon, the Homeland of the Métis is the site of Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia and Rankin Inlet is an Inuit community located on the Kudlulik Peninsula, on the west coast of the Hudson Bay in Nunavut and the site of Girls Expressing Themselves Through Art (GET Art).

Dialogues 4 Change EVENT Dialogues 4 Change, a three-day event hosted by MTW took place November 12th to 14th, at McGill University in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal), Quebec. The event brought together the young people from the three project sites, along with their supporters, the Assembly of 7 Generations, an Indigenous youth focused not-for-profit in Ottawa and other individuals who are passionate about supporting the work of young Indigenous peoples. As the culminating event for the MTW project, Dialogues 4 Change focused on youth advocacy through creating opportunities for the young people of the project to connect with and learn from one another, celebrate what has been achieved in the project and explore what future arts-based advocacy could look like.

Day 1: Taking Action Together: Youth Advocacy Exhibition The first day of the event invited the attendees to the Participatory Cultures Lab to reconnect with each other while viewing the exhibition Taking Action Together over lunch. The exhibition was a series of posters and photos, that showcased the different artwork and activities that have been generated during the project. Assembling this type of exhibition, is part of the Organic Evaluation strategy of More Than Words. The exhibition posters were hung up around the Participatory Cultures Lab. As attendees entered the lab, they were immediately immersed in the artwork of MTW. The event started with an opening, a series of introductions, poetry and book readings before everyone in attendance was invited to move around the lab and take in the exhibition.

Images from the Speaking Back Exhibit.

Opening

Dr. Claudia Mitchell opened the event by welcoming everyone to Tiohtiá:ke. She started by recognizing Kanien’kehá:ka Nation as the true hosts. The event took place on unceded Indigenous land and the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters, on which McGill University is located. Dr. Mitchell thanked everyone for attending, recognizing the various journeys that were taken to bring this group of people together and noting that this was the first of three days together.

Who’s In the Room

After welcoming the group to the exhibit and event, Dr. Mitchell invited everyone to introduce themselves. Each person in the room took a minute to say their names, where they were coming from and any other information they might want to share. During this time folks shared what Nations they were from, what their connection to MTW was and how exciting it was to be together. Many people introduced themselves in their languages and spoke about the communities they were coming from. Notably at this event folks had travelled from the North, East and West of Turtle Island to be together.

Marjorie Beaucage reading poetry.

Sharing

Once everyone was introduced to each other the group was treated to several readings from authors in the room and different creators explaining their work. Firstly, Marjorie Beaucage, a Métis activist, filmmaker and poet, read from her new book Leave Some For the Birds.

Marjorie explained her writing process and how poems in the book had been selected from the journals she had been keeping for the past 40 years. Hanna Battiste from Eskasoni read a poem from her book Out of Darkness. Hanna also explained her writing process and how poetry has been a therapeutic outlet for her. Members of Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia along with Zachary Mandamin read from their book KÎYÂNAW OCÊPIHK. At this time, Déborah Maia de Lima also introduced her photography exhibit “Dancing With the Land” which was on display at the entrance of the Participatory Cultures Lab. Sam Nepton, Margaret Mackenzie and Emilee Bews spoke about their work creating zines with Indigenous mentors and mentees at McGill University and the Critical Campus Tour that had been developed to start conversations about where McGill is located the institutions colonial past and current relationships with Indigenous peoples.

Speaking Back exhibit.

Taking In The Exhibit

Attendees were invited to intentionally engage with the exhibit by moving around the entire space, to take in the different components that made up Taking Action Together: An Exhibition of Youth Advocacy From More Than Words. While all the previous parts of the day took place in the same room as the exhibit, taking the time to intentionally look at the artwork allowed folks to see the breadth of work that has come out of MTW and how the work from the different sites can come into conversation with one another. Folks moved around the room slowly, many gravitating towards their own work, where they could explain to the others who were also looking at it what the specific history or context of its production was. The curotorial statement for the exhibit read:

Day 2: Let’s Mobilize

Building on the excitement and energy of connecting from the first day, the second day of the event focused on exploring youth advocacy using arts-based methods, with a specific focus on cellphilming. Cellphilms (cellphone + films) are typically short videos, made using accessible technology like cellphones, that highlight or speak back to an issue. The day started by smudging with Marjorie and a check-in where everyone shared their favourite part of coming together at the exhibition the day before.

Arts-Based Advocacy

Before moving into the cellphilming workshop, Emily Booker ran a short activity on youth-advocacy, highlighting the many ways young Indigenous peoples involved with MTW have used art to advocate for different causes. Youth were asked to reflect on what topics or issues were or were not addressed in the exhibit the day before. Next, they were asked to write a list of who they thought were advocates for change. A number of different people were listed and a few youth even wrote down their own names. This moved into a discussion on how all the young people in the room were advocates and how they had used many different artistic methods to raise awareness about issues in their communities and beyond.

Cellphilming

The next step was to create cellphilms as a form of advocacy. To begin, Dr. Joshua Schwab-Cartas led the group in a cellphilm making workshop. His workshop introduced how to create cellphilms, highlighting important considerations like visual ethics, framing and sound. The workshop also included example cellphilms that had been made on the topics of language revitalization and the safety of Indigenous girls and young women. The workshop finished by asking everyone to work in small groups to create a “media matters” style cellphilms. Media matter cellphilms are in the style of public service announcements, raising awareness on a topic in a short amount of time. The prompt to create cellphilms on was: If you had one minute to raise awareness about a topic or issue you are passionate about, what would it look like?

In small groups, young people and adult supporters started brainstorming issues they were passionate about and how they might raise awareness about those same issues. Groups moved on to storyboarding and filming around lunchtime before spending the afternoon editing their cellphilms.

Cellphilming in action.

At the end of the day eight cellphilms had been created and were ready to be screened for the group. When it was time to watch the cellphilms, each group took turns introducing their cellphilms before it was played.

The cellphilms were: Where Are You Aunty? by Nicoletta Daniels and Cindy Moccasin from Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia highlights the on-going issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls through the story of Cindy’s missing aunt Christy Desjarlais. Despite campaigns to raise awareness on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Indigenous women and girls continue to go missing and their families are left without support from the police when their loved ones go missing. We March, We Sing, We Search, We Pray, We Still Go Missing.

Nibi ~ Mayim ~ Water ~L’eau ~ Nipity ~ Samqyan ~ ‘wôder by Zachary Mandamin, Marjorie Beaucage, Linda Liebenberg and Morris Green highlights the water waste that comes from consumerist culture in North America, noting how often we take for granted the water used to create products like t-shirts and how bottled water is a billion-dollar industry.

The cellphilm asks viewers to be more conscious with their buying power and ends with a water song, sung by Marjorie.

What Are You Doing To Support The Houseless? by Harmony McKay, Melody McKay and Maniyah Kennedy from Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia sheds light on how desensitized people have become to houselessness as people walk by others sleeping on the street without thinking twice and only sometimes will give them a little bit of money.

This cellphilm highlights how Indigenous peoples often end up living on the streets as a result of intergenerational trauma. Despite this, Indigenous peoples are resilient and houseless Indigenous peoples need support.

Preserving Languages by Edmund Morris, Jaylyn Morris and Anjelikah Stevens from Break the Silence: Be the Change calls for the preservation and revitalization of the Mi’gmaq language. They note that like most other Indigenous languages in Canada, there are not that many fluent Mi’gmaq speakers and this is impart because young people are not learning the language. To preserve the language, they call for the creation of more language classes in schools, the creation of accessible resources, community events to celebrate language and culture and to have Mi’gmaq spoken in more public spaces. They also highlight that you can contribute to preserving the language without being fluent, by taking courses, taking advantage of any learning opportunities available and by speaking and sharing what they know of the language.

MIQSUQ ᒥᖅᓱᖅ by Haily-May Ussak, Julia Ussak, Rosie Ussak and Marnina Gonick speaks to the centrality of sewing in Inuit culture and ways of life.

The cellphilm highlights how sewing is a responsibility that falls onto young Inuit women but is connected to language preservation, economic freedom and many cultural practices including hunting.

Sewing is essential so Inuit people can spend time on the land. It provides warm clothing and the proper equipment to set hunters up for successful trips to provide food for their families and communities.

Rosie talks about how growing up, she was taught girls should stay at home and sew while the men hunt, but now that she is married and a mother she believes that her daughters should experience hunting alongside sewing.

Indigenous Solidarity With Palestine by Cedar Iahtail, Celine Debassig and Gabrielle Fayant of the Assembly of 7 Generations highlights the connection between settler colonialism on Turtle Island and in Palestine.

The cellphilm features videos of protests and demonstrations where Indigenous peoples are calling for a cease fire and the end of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, including the call and response: every child matters; Palestinian children matter.

Tasta’we Iniyak by Kamâmik Poundmaker of the Native Montreal Youth Council created a cellphilm featuring their spoken word poetry on growing up, gender and cultural expression and connections and resilience.

After watching all the cellphilms, we had a group discussion thinking about what was similar in the cellphilms, what differences were identified and which audiences should see the cellphilms. People reflected on how exciting it was to see cellphilms on so many different topics in response to a singular prompt and that the main unifying factor of the cellphilms was the creators' passion. Each group of cellphilm creators expressed that youth in their communities and beyond would benefit from seeing their cellphilms. Some youth noted that they didn’t learn about these topics until they were older, like MMIWG, but that they wished they had started having these conversations when they were younger. Day two ended on the high of the cellphilm viewings.

Cellphilming in action.

Day 3: Let’s Create! Community Action

On the final day of the event, the morning was set aside for the young people from MTW and their supporters to spend time together watching cellphilms, create artwork and work on the Trail of Promising Practices.

In the afternoon individuals from the MTW network in Tiohtiá:ke were invited to the Community Dialogue Event. The Community Dialogue Event invited folks who are engaged in work with young Indigenous people to connect with everyone who had been participating in the Dialogues 4 Change event over lunch. The day finished with a sharing circle for the MTW youth and their supporters.

Dialogues 4 Change Mini Cellphilm Festival

The day opened with smudging and a sharing circle, where everyone reflected on their favourite part of making their cellphilms or watching the cellphilms. Many young people shared how special it was to create cellphilms with each other, especially on topics they were passionate about. Others shared how much they liked being able to see what everyone else had created and learn about each other’s passions. After, the sharing circle we gathered together to watch a few more cellphilms as part of a miniature cellphilm festival highlighting work from the three sites over the years. Cellphilms from Eskasoni, Rankin Inlet and Treaty 6 were collected. The mini cellphilm festival included:

The Mask from Break the Silence: Be the Change in Eskasoni, was created in April 2023 and spoke to the on-going impact and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how if you felt safest wearing a mask, even when it was not mandated, you should continue to wear a mask.

The Price is Too High from GET Art in Rankin Inlet, was the first film the group had created and featured the group going to the two grocery stores in town to compare the prices. The film highlighted the high costs of living in the North and the limited selections of food compared to the south.

Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia by Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia in Treaty 6, was also one of the first cellphilms the group made. It highlighted the strength of the youth in the group and some of the challenges, like being followed in the mall, they face in their neighbourhood and community as young Indigenous women and girls.

Finding Your Medicine by Marjorie Beaucage was also included in the festival. This was a short video she had created as part of a series on harm reduction. The video discusses the importance of challenging the deficit view that is often framing Indigenous narratives and instead asks that a strength-based perspective be taken.

Scenes from day 1.

Craftivism

After the mini cellphilm festival the youth were invited to continue exploring different ways to advocate using arts-based methods. Stations were set up to make buttons, create patches, design posters and notebooks. Youth considered how they could raise awareness about the same issues they addressed in their cellphilms as well as other topics or issues they are passionate about. Many youth took this opportunity to create artwork celebrating their groups and families. In one station youth were invited to reflect their experiences as young Indigenous advocates as part of MTW, responding to the following prompts: What are causes or issues that are important to you?

What advice would you give to adults who want to work with youth?

What support or resources could adults in your community be providing you with?

Why is it important for youth to connect with other youth?

Reviewing the Trail of Promising Practices

While the youth crafted, the supporters who were participating in the event were invited to review The Trail of Promising Practices. This Trail document will be one of the final outputs of the project and is meant to be a guide, to help others who are interested in starting or strengthening youth-centred spaces in their communities, that empower youth to address specific issues of SGBV in their communities through arts-based methods. The document is made up of foundational elements, which are broader tenets, informing all the practices. The document also contains promising practices, that are distinct practices that contributed to the success of the project. The supporters present reviewed the document, providing feedback, including adding three new practices.

Community Dialogue Event

At lunchtime, individuals from the MTW network started arriving to the space. At this time the Taking Action exhibition from day 1 had been set-up in the lunch space and folks were able to take in the incredible work from MTW. Over the course of lunch, the attendees also had the opportunity to hear from the folks who had been participating in the Dialogues 4 Change event over the past two days. Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia spoke about their group, youth from the group discussed their vision for the future and they honoured Sarah Flicker for all the work she has done with them. The Assembly of 7 Generations spoke about a report they published “A Labour of Love” that highlighted the challenges Indigenous youth organizations face and called for the full implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission call to action #66. Hanna Battiste from Eskasoni read a poem for her book Out of Darkness.

Haily-May and Julia, from Rankin Inlet, talked about their group and performed a throat-singing song.

Taking Action exhibit at the community event.

Finally, we invited everyone in the room to help us Build the Trail. For this activity we had created a paper trail, cut out rock shapes on paper and asked people to respond to a series of prompts related to the Trail of Promising Practices.

What avenues exist for adults to hear directly from young people about they want or need? Why are these spaces for conversation important?

On-going and informed consent is one of the foundational elements of the MTW’s trail. What does consent with young people look like inside and outside of community spaces?

Safe spaces are spaces where youth feel safe to be themselves, brave spaces are spaces where youth feel safe to speak out and take action.

Brave spaces are spaces where youth and adults can safely have conversations on challenging topics for the purpose of learning together. How can adults support creating safe and brave spaces for young people?

Aunties and mentors have been central to creating safe and welcoming spaces that have supported the growth of the youth in MTW. Often, individuals in the role of aunty or mentor are over-worked and at risk of burn out. What can be done to support aunties, leaders and mentors?

Women and gender non-conforming folks, often take on the role of mentor and community leader for youth, how can we support men stepping up as uncles and mentors?

After discussing the prompts at their tables, they wrote down their responses on the paper rocks and added them to trail.

Creating art at the community event.

Closing Circle

After the Community Dialogue Event wrapped up, there was a final sharing circle for the youth from MTW and their supporters. In this sharing circle, everyone spoke to their favourite memories of the past three days.

The reflections highlighted the importance of connecting with one another, listening to the voices of young Indigenous peoples and creating intentional space for arts-based advocacy. The circle finished with Marjorie Beaucage leading everyone in a travelling song, as the folks from Rankin Inlet had to leave to catch their flights home.

Taking Action exhibit at the community event.

The trail.

Conclusion Dialogues 4 Change was a powerful event, over the three days together there was countless memories made, incredibly art created, and new passions uncovered. The event spoke to the importance creating spaces where Young Indigenous peoples can connect with one another and where the advocacy work of young Indigenous peoples is celebrated and recognized. Building on the momentum and learnings from the event The Trail of Promising Practices for MTW will be revisited and revised.

The new suggestions and learnings from the event will be incorporated into the document before it is finally shared.

Connect

Project Website: mcgill.ca/morethanwords/

Principal Investigator

Project Coordinator

Dr. Claudia Mitchell claudia.mitchell@mcgill.ca McGill University

Leann Brown leann.brown@mcgill.ca McGill University

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the girls and young women in Eskasoni, Treaty 6 and Rankin, as well as their community leaders, families and academic supporters for sharing with us their stories and art-work. Thank you to Leann Brown, Angela MacDonald, Bori Godley. Emilee Bews, Emilia Vera Romero, Nesa Bandarchian, Margaret MacKenzie, Sam Netpon and Emily Booker for their support of this event. More Than Words is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), The Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation and Women and Gender-Equity Canada.