Upcoming Events

In April 2025, the Colonial Injustices and Current Realities: UVic Research Collective received a SSHRC Connections grant to host and participate in a closed workshop entitled, “Learning Together: Connecting Researchers Examining Colonial Injustices and Inheritances at their Universities.” This workshop aims to strengthen, and in some cases germinate, collaborations among scholars, librarians, student researchers, and practitioners from across university institutions who are examining and/or addressing colonial injustices and inheritances at their universities. The workshop provides a space to facilitate collaboration-building through co-learning vis-à-vis roundtable discussions and a final working brunch where we identify take-aways and potential next steps.

Attendees are from the University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University, McGill University, University of California (Los Angeles), California State University (Long Beach), Royal Roads University, and the University of Victoria.

Over two days, four roundtable discussions will occur around the following themes:

• Mandated vs. Emergent Research
• Dispossession, Community Relations, and Repair
• Global Systems of Injustice and Higher Education Ideals
• Local Indigenous Peoples, Institutions, and Historical In/Justices.

A working brunch will close the workshop and potentially lead to next steps for future collaboration.

This closed workshop will include a visit with Land Stewards, Loreisa Lepine and Drew Elves. It will also host two public events: a pop-up exhibition and a public lecture.

Exhibition

The pop-up exhibition will run from September 8-14 at the Mearns Centre for Learning in the front area of the McPherson Library at UVic. Entitled “Colonial Injustices and Current Realities: UVic,” it is comprised of several sections that include new installation material drawn from the research outputs of our research collective, a re-installation of select archival exhibit material, looping of a new film that will run on existing library video technology, and a new, permanent wall mural installation visualizing local treaty lands.

Public Lecture

The public lecture will be a Lansdowne Lecture given by workshop participants Dr. Theresa Jean Ambo (Associate Professor, UCLA, American Indian Studies, Education) and Dr. Kelly Leah Stewart (UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow; Assistant Professor, California State University, Long Beach, American Indian Studies). Entitled “Remembering, Restorying, and Reclaiming in the Wake of Erasure,” this lecture asks, “What becomes possible when remembering histories are led by Indigenous communities and accountable to Indigenous homelands?” Drawing from examples in California, this presentation explores how the decolonial projects of remembering, restorying, and reclaiming can create a future where educational research yields something meaningful for Tribal communities: stories, presence, and power. This lecture offers a guide for reimagining archival work, institutional accountability, and public memory through the centring of Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty, and ceremonial care to construct prosperous Indigenous futures.