Speakers

Abstract
In this talk, Kama La Mackerel looks back over the many lessons they learnt running popular education programs in the community sector, in the arts & cultural sector, and in the academic sector. Drawing from community-based grassroots research initiatives, they will unpack the meaning of leadership as it pertains to sustainable forms of empowerment.

Bio
Kama La Mackerel is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer, educator and cultural mediator who calls both Mauritius and Montreal home. Amongst the many community arts project they have facilitated, they are the founder of GENDER B(L)ENDER, Montreal’s unique LGBTQ+ open mic, which they hosted for 5 years, the founder and artistic director of Our Bodies, Our Stories: a QTBIPOC arts mentorship program, and the curator of The Self-Love Cabaret. Kama’s life’s work, their community work and their artistic practice all interlace around the themes of decoloniality, justice, love, healing & the commitment to relationship building. More info: lamackerel.net

William Lindsay is of Cree heritage and hails from British Columbia. His given traditional name is ‘Running Fox.’ He grew up in the B.C. north as a youth and in Vancouver since, including nine years on the Squamish Nation.

His B.Ed. was completed in the Native Indian Teacher Education Program (1996) and his M.A. thesis in History (1998) studied A History of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre in an Age of Aboriginal Migration and Urbanization. William reached PhD candidacy in 2017-18 in Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Education, researching The Indigenization of Universities through Indigenous Leadership.

He has worked for over twenty years as an Indigenous teacher, professor, student services provider, and senior administrator, at numerous B.C. colleges and universities, including the Native Education College, the Institute for Indigenous Government/Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, Douglas College, University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University. William most recently served as the Director of the Office for Aboriginal Peoples (http://www.sfu.ca/aboriginalpeoples.html) and Special Advisor on Aboriginal Affairs at SFU from 2009-2018, working across the university and out into the community.

For the last four years, with the support of CEED Concordia, we have been working on a participatory action research project which examines three different approaches to the post-war reintegration of war-affected and formerly abducted young mothers in Northern Uganda to determine which was more effective in improving the welfare of the women. Both our findings and CEED’s model for youth empowerment through cross-cultural collaboration will be used as a backdrop to discuss the process of conducting research within an international context. For a local co-researcher working with international researchers, or as an outsider conducting a study internationally, both situations can be teeming with misunderstandings, frustrations and misinterpretations as well as new insights, novel experiences, and an opportunity to expand one’s capacity.

Bios

Michelle Savard is a public scholar and a doctoral student in her final year with the Department of Education at Concordia University. Her research examines the sociopolitical and cultural structures that are inhibiting the successful social reintegration of formerly abducted and war-affected young mothers in Northern Uganda. Her interests include conducting international research, participatory action research, the radicalization of youth, critical pedagogy, and social justice. She was a co-editor for a Special Issue of the Journal for Contemporary Issues in Education, has published in the areas of comparative education, peace education, and critical pedagogy, and for three years, she assisted in the coordination of an international symposium on Teaching about Extremism, Terror and Trauma held at Concordia University in partnership with Nova Southeastern University.

Ajok Susan is with working war-affected, single mothers in northern Uganda as a social worker under the umbrella of the Uganda Women’s Action program in Gulu Uganda. She has participated as a co-researcher and translator for many international research projects for NGOs and graduate students. In 2013, as an exchange student, she conducted research on forgiveness in Acholiland, which she presented to the Oral History Department at Concordia University Canada. She is completing an MBA in conflict transformation studies. She owns her own businesses and is a mother to two young girls.

Thomas Prince is the Executive Director for CEED Concordia and Concordia alumnus (MA Social and Cultural Anthropology 2015). His research interests and previous work and social entrepreneurship experience in Uganda and Peru have focused on indigenous practices, grassroots development and community organizing, and post conflict recovery in contexts of economic marginalization and discrimination. He is an outdoor enthusiast, retired snowboarder and failed djembe maker. Currently his young children occupy all his time, so his hobbies and further studies are on hold.

This panel will be moderated by: Chelsea Lewis

Bio
Priscylla Joca is a Ph.D. candidate in law at Université de Montréal where she researches about Indigenous consultation protocols in Canada and Brazil. She has been awarded the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. Joca holds a master’s degree in Constitutional Law from the Federal University of Ceara (Brazil). She is a Brazilian lawyer and researcher with experience in legal pluralism, Indigenous rights, human rights, environmental rights, environmental justice, and territorial rights with a focus on Indigenous Peoples, Quilombolas, and Traditional Peoples. Joca is also a member of the Research Institute on Law and Social Movements (IPDMS-Brazil).

Abstract
In this presentation, Anne-Marie Veilette will discuss current issues related to the militarization of the favelas. In particular, she will address the anticipated negative effects of Bolsonaro’s decisions on gun control and intensification of the war on drugs. Particular emphasis will be placed on the experience of women living in the favelas.

Bio
Anne-Marie Veillette is a PhD student in Urban Studies at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (Montreal). She has a Master’s degree in Political Science and Feminist’s Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in International relations and International Law, both from Université du Québec à Montréal. Her main research interests are feminism and urban militarization issues in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil. More precisely, she has been actively researching the matter of women and police violence in Rio de Janeiro’s slums. She is currently pursuing her PhD studies and her thesis is entitled: Understanding women’s political life in the context of urban violence – the case of women living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Abstract
The presentation will address the struggles of Quilombo communities, which are the Brazilian ethnic groups formed by descendants of millions of men and women that were taken to Brazil as slaves. After the promulgation of Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988, these groups had finally their right to land legally recognized. Their struggles and demands are slowly, although consistently, changing the way people have always conceived resistance to slavery and other forms of submission in Brazil and have been seen as a powerful threat to White hegemony not only in history books but also on Brazilian landscape. What are the main characteristics of these “black territories”? How many are they? Where are they located? And how the recently elected far-right government can affect Quilombos’ struggle for rights?

Bio
Rosa Lima Peralta holds a Master’s Degree in Development and Environment from the Federal University of Paraíba (Brazil) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). She has been working and researching quilombo communities since 2005. Rosa presently works at the Committee for Human Rights in Latin America (CDHAL), a Canadian NGO addressing the impacts of extractivist activities on human rights in Latin America and in Canada as well.

This panel will be moderated by: Marlon Sanches