Work on the Time and Place at UBC: Our Histories and Relations project throughout this past fall semester has proven to be productive. The project team, through community outreach with Musqueam band members as well as FNIS faculty and many others, has been making steady progress and is in the late stages of writing the first draft for the educator’s guide intended to accompany the Musqueam content being added to the timeline.
During this past semester, the project team has been working on centering Indigenous forms of knowledge, practice and ideologies in relation with the content being added to the timeline. These measures are being put in place in order to provide a framework within which the content of the timeline can be engaged in thoughtful, meaningful and respectful ways. The histories and knowledge being shared with CTLT by the Musqueam Nation can be seen as a gift signifying an important relationship being formed in which we as recipients of this gift have important responsibilities. While navigating these responsibilities ourselves, we are working to incorporate them into the educator’s guide as well — creating a relationship based on reciprocity and accountability between those who access these histories and the Musqueam Nation, to whom these histories belong.
Overall, I am very happy with the direction of this educator’s guide as we work to enact Indigenous principles and practice in relation to Indigenous knowledge and histories in order to hold up our responsibilities to the Musqueam Nation as we move forward with this project.
Mathew Andreatta is fourth-year First Nations and Indigenous Studies student and Student Assistant on the TLEF project: Time and Place at UBC. As part of his work on the project, he will be writing a series of blog posts for our website to introduce and reflect on different aspects of his work as he co-develops the Educator’s Guide for the Musqueam row of the timeline. Stay tuned for more of Mat’s posts!