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D4

Concurrent Session D4 & E4

Community Connected Activity

 *** Please note this session spans two programming blocks!

Session Details

飦� Date: Day 2 - Tuesday, May 12, 2026

飥桾ime: 3:10鈥�5 p.m.

飦� Location: TBD

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Stories of Unpacking Colonialism: A De-colonizing Journey鈥檚 Documentary

We will share our film, Stories of Unpacking Colonialism: A De-colonizing Journey鈥檚 Documentary, showcasing Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators鈥� and learners' de-colonizing journeys and the influence of Indigegogy on those processes. The 60-minute film emerges from a multi-year, SSHRC research-creation project led by Dr. Kathy Absolon, Anishinaabe Knowledge Keeper and scholar, whose vision of de-colonizing demands that we 鈥榳ake up from our colonial coma鈥� through the practice of Indigegogy. 

Indigegogy refers to Indigenous scholarship, methodologies, circle and ceremony, which create the conditions for meaningful de-colonizing journeys through learning, teaching and life. Between 2017 and 2025 and led by Dr. Absolon, the Centre for Indigegogy at WLU offered multiple ways for educators to learn about Indigegogy and de-colonizing. It was at the Centre that many of the digital story tellers in the film met and were deeply impacted by their experience. The stories in this film speak to that impact, centering the experiences and lived journeys of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators and learners and tracing how de-colonization may be taken up in the era of Truth and Reconciliation. 

Following the screening, we will have an interactive discussion with documentary participants and filmmakers that will offer insight into art-full approaches to decolonizing journeys rooted in Indigegogy. Opening the circle to all, we will discuss ways to shift consciousness and activate individual and collective movement building toward ending violence against Indigenous people and lands, while fighting for Land Back.  

Presenters

Kathy Absolon, Full Professor, Indigenous Field of Study (Social Work), Wilfrid Laurier University

Kathy Absolon is Anishinaabekwe from Flying Post First Nation Treaty 9. She is a professor in the indigenous field of study MSW program at Wilfrid Laurier University and the author of Kaandossiwin How We Come To Know ((Fernwood Publishing 2022, 2ed & 2011). 

Dr. Hannah Fowlie is the Manager for Storytelling and Social Equity at Re鈥ision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph. Dr. Fowlie has worked extensively with Re鈥ision, collaborating with participants on wide-ranging topics including disability justice, decolonial education, and feminist praxis to make short films about their experiences. Dr. Fowlie has a lifelong love and involvement with the arts as an actor, director, and filmmaker, and firmly believes that art has the power to make societal change.

Giselle Dias (Niigaanii Zhaawshko Giizhigokwe 鈥� Leading Blue Sky Woman) is an Indigiqueer M茅tis writer, activist scholar, educator, community organizer, with roots in the Red River (Hodgson and Fidler), as well as settler ancestry. Her scholarship focuses on Indigenous wholistic abolition, Indigegogy, decolonization, and land-based learning, weaving Indigiqueer feminist theory, Indigenous wholism, and community-rooted practice.  She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Social Work, Indigenous Field of Study at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Jessica is a white settler, abolition feminist, and activist-scholar who is deeply committed to dismantling racist and colonial systems. She is an Assistant Professor in Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University whose work is informed by her long-standing prisoners鈥� rights advocacy, and solidarity with those most impacted by systems of oppression and domination. Jessica was a Research Associate with the Centre for Indigegogy until its closure in 2025 where she supported other settlers in their decolonizing journeys.

Julia Elizabeth Janes is a disabled, white, settler associate professor of social work at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador situated on the unceded lands of the Beothuk and Mi鈥檏maq. Julia鈥檚 scholarship and activisms centre decolonizing, anti-carceral and mad praxes, community/university engagements -- particularly with Indigenous communities, social work as harm reduction, and arts-infused, critical and poststructural methodologies. When the ice melts, Julia can be found swimming in the cool waters of Ktaqmkuk and Rama First Nation.

Jennifer (Jen) Poole (she/her) is a white settler. She is also a full professor at 91福利鈥檚 School of Social Work where her work sits in the confluence of madness and grief. She grounds herself in approaches that challenge colonialism and supremacism and those that center connection, co-creation, access and justice. 

Carla Rice is Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair Feminist Studies and Social Practice and Founding and Academic Director of the Re鈥ision Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph. Rice specializes in feminist, difference, and disability theory and in research creation methodologies with a focus on changing systems and fostering social well-being and justice.

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