Donna DesBiens

Hi Derek,

Thanks for the feedback.  It was due to engaging in this microcourse that I too have begun to develop a better understanding of the meaning of guest/visitor protocols.  The Beyond territorial acknowledgements article in our course resources opened some doors of perception for me! 

In a bit of synchronicity, I also recently learned about different talking circle directional protocols.  In my case, it was a result of experiential learning in a couple of workshops at the recent Learning at Intercultural Intersections conference. In both workshops, I happened to be sitting right next to the facilitators in the circle. Luckily for me, as I tend to be a bit shy, the Day 1 workshop followed clockwise Kainaiwa protocol so I had time to get acquainted with the other conference participants and flow before going first in the Day 5 workshop activities, which followed the counterclockwise Nuxalk protocol.  For future, I'll know to arrive early to choose a seat accordingly!! 

Hi Eva,

I appreciate how you were able to acknowledge three different regions of Indigenous traditional lands in such a clear and concise way. 

It also felt meaningful to me that you included some of your own ancestral story, so please do consider sharing that sometimes. After all, this is the kind of information people often share with friends and colleagues in natural day to day conversations as a way of getting acquainted.  I imagine there would be some powerful stories in your maternal heritage if you ever want to explore that further for yourself.  

Hi Susan, 

I really like how you included the Ojibwa word for hello as well as the English in your opening. I've been using the Lkwungen word for thank you (háy̓sxʷ q̓ə), which I've learned is pronounced like hi'chka and plan to model your use of hello in local languages too.   

You inspired me to think about possibly including other phrases when it suits the conversation context, just as I would make an effort to do in other intercultural situations. The Language Map of BC website provides the meaning and pronunciation for various greetings and phrases in Indigenous languages in this province that I may try out!    

Like you, I have thought about the diverse Indigenous peoples on whose traditional lands where I've lived and worked, and am considering ways to acknowledge key places without getting into too much detail. Several people have posted some great demos of how this might be done in an engaging and memorable way. A few examples that come to mind from my reviewing today: Jennifer K's PPT slide movie; how Siobhan and Derek wove in brief personal stories; and how Eva gave a brief, clear overview of three different regions.  

Kleco-Kleco for sharing - the Nuu-chah-nulth for thank you :-)  

Hi Siobhan,

I enjoyed the sense of a natural storytelling voice in your acknowledgement and the sharing of your learning process resonated for me too.  As I mentioned to Susan G-M, who also shared about her learning in her post, I plan to model this in my own future statements. 

As a relative newcomer to the Victoria area, I also appreciated learning the names of diverse First Nations of the W̱SÁNEĆ traditional territories.  This gave me a clear direction on how to pursue further learning about the culture and history of this place. 

Hi Jennifer,

I too really appreciated seeing an acknowledgement in this format because it's an option to speech, text, or view that could work equally well in online as well as face-to-face courses.  Also as Dianne suggested, I think this could be a great learning activity for students - or similarly in faculty development courses. Thanks for sharing the 'how-to' steps! 

In terms of your content, I really like the inclusions of the QayQayt Welcome Pole image, and history and language pieces, and similar information about other traditional territories where you have lived. And the photos of your family, with little info clips is a great way to share something of self in a very time efficient way.  

I too plan to re-use these ideas in my ongoing learning design work, especially in online courses.  It reminded me of Amanda Coolidge's origin story intro in her keynote at the CUNY/SUNY OER showcase (in our microcourse Resources) and I'd like to try to also include something about ethical values in my context as she did.