From May 2021 to April 2022, 24 staff members participated in Jon Croutch’s LLC workshops.
So far this year, 19 staff members have participated.
Workshop descriptions:
Speaking Our Truths: The Journey Towards Reconciliation Part 1 & 2
In Part 1 we look at the hidden history of Canada, a history that has been largely untold. We consider the attitudes, legislation and policies of the Crown that erased Indigenous peoples’ history from the Canadian landscape. We examine the ways in which powerful Indigenous nations, critical allies and trading partners were devalued and systematically stripped of their lands, resources and eventually their identities.
In Part 2 we examine how past attitudes, policies and legislation have impacted the current situation of Indigenous peoples and how the current trajectory can be remedied. Indigenous peoples have displayed their resilience in the many Indigenous success stories.
Reflecting on Indigenous Land Acknowledgments
Many Canadian Institutions, including the University of Toronto, include land acknowledgements before meetings, before convocations and at seminars and conferences, but why do we do them? What is their purpose and are they an effective tool of reconciliation and decolonization? The fear is that land acknowledgements have become largely performative and rote, stripping them of their potential to bring about change. These are some of the questions and topics that will be explored in this one-and-a-half hour session.
Reconciliation: Walking the Path of Indigenous Allyship
What does it mean to be an ally to Indigenous peoples? Is it even possible to call yourself an ally, or is more correct to say that one can only aspire to be an ally as allyship is a continuous process of self-reflexivity and learning and acting in a decolonial manner? These are some of the questions and issues that will be explored in the hour-and-a-half presentation.