Understandings of Place

A coalescing interest and practice amongst and between members of our research collective is reflecting on and deepening our understandings of place, with UVic being the entry point. What, and how, is this place? Whose place is this, says who, and how is this legitimated? Who has been removed, excluded, or made obscure from this place? Where injustice in the creation of place has occurred, what are those injustices and what reparation is required or embarked upon?

Land is inextricably linked to place under a context of settler colonialism. We are learning more about the history of the land on which the UVic campus exists and the human relationships with these lands that have formed into meanings of place and methods of place-making.

Our engagements with understandings of UVic as place occurs independently and collectively (e.g. through personal or professional research; co-learning with colleagues who have specific knowledges about the history of human relationships with the lands that are presently known as UVic campus lands).

We strive to be intentional and on-going in our recognition and learning of whose lands we live and work in as members of the UVic community, the colonial and treaty relationship that informs Canada’s relationship with Lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ peoples as well as the importance of UVic campus lands as a “place” that was and is meaningful to Lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ peoples and other Indigenous peoples. Our work unfolds with recognition that every member of the UVic community is a part of UVic and the campus is a place that is meaningful to everyone in myriad ways.