ILSA Statement re: Congress 2021

March 1, 2021

Following the Black Canadian Studies Association (BCSA)’s Feb 9th statement re: Congress 2021, the Indigenous Literary Studies Association (ILSA) Council has made the decision not to hold our gathering at Congress this spring. While we are attentive to the Federation’s efforts to respond meaningfully to the BCSA’s statement, and even as we honour the labour of our Black and Indigenous colleagues who have been working tirelessly to create institutional change within the Federation, it has become clear to the Council that, as an association, we have work to do elsewhere this year. We will therefore be holding our virtual gathering outside of Congress (with dates to be announced).

This decision has come after much deliberation, and we are grateful to the BCSA for providing this opportunity for Federation-affiliated associations to rigorously consider our own long-term responsibility to actively combat anti-Black racism. For ILSA, this has meant a difficult and intensive period of conversation and consultation amongst our Council, our membership, our elders, our mentors, and our colleagues—many of whom have expressed divergent views on the best ways for us to commit to this work. The issue of Black-Indigenous solidarities is one that ILSA turned to at our 2018 roundtable at First Nations University of Canada, a dialogue that has since led to subsequent panels, to the 50th anniversary special issue of Ariel co-edited by ILSA members, and to a process of beginning to amend our reading lists and syllabi in order to engage with the work of Black scholars and artists, so many of whom are considering the entanglements of Black and Indigenous lives. We have therefore had to assess our existing commitments—as well as our shortcomings—and to consider the extensive relationship-building work that remains ahead of us, as we seek ways to better support our Black colleagues. 

Congress has long been a space of importance for scholars and students of Indigenous literatures. For many years, we would gather at the Aboriginal literature roundtable, hosted by the Canadian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (CACLALS), and organized by changemakers who had a vision for our field, including the late Jo-Ann Episkenew and Renate Eigenbrod, among others. This roundtable, held annually at 

Congress, was in many ways the origin of ILSA: it was a dedicated place where Indigenous scholars gathered, where students of Indigenous literatures could meet, and where all could find community. Following the 2013 founding of ILSA, we remained committed to co-hosting this event with CACLALS and to attending Congress every second year, with the interim years being dedicated to holding our gathering in community settings. We would like to emphasize that we are indebted to all of those colleagues and organizers, who through much hard work have made these spaces so generative.

We recognize, however, that Congress has not consistently been a safe or accessible space for all scholars, as demonstrated both by the racial profiling of a Black graduate student and BCSA member at the 2019 UBC Congress and by the BCSA’s decision not to attend this year. For the ILSA Council, it is therefore evident that we must prioritize a better understanding of possible points of connection and collaboration between Black and Indigenous communities and scholarship. To this end, we require a gathering space in which our plans to host a roundtable on the theme of Black-Indigenous solidarities—as a continuation of the conversation begun at Congress in 2018—can be carried out in a good way, in a venue that we hope will be welcoming to those colleagues, students, and community members who have made individual decisions not to be at Congress this year. 

Our decision to withdraw from Congress in order to pursue these vital conversations is one way that we express our commitment to being better relatives. This statement, however, contains no directives for other associations or individual scholars to follow; rather, we echo the BCSA’s invitation for our colleagues to have these and other necessary conversations within their own circles. We respect those who will make the decision to continue to work at Congress this year, particularly Black and Indigenous scholars, as well as other scholars of colour and those from equity-seeking groups, who are doing the difficult work of taking up space and making change in institutional settings. Likewise, we respect those who, in solidarity with the BCSA, will not attend. Our elders have advised us of the need for balance in our response, and so we aim to make space for diverse approaches, for multiple strategies.  

We look forward to this year as a time of continued transformation for the Federation and for all our associations, and we express our appreciation to all those who continue to work toward change—especially to the BIPOC scholars who do so much of this work and have done so for many years. We likewise look forward to the Federation’s confirmation of a face-to-face Congress centering on Black and Indigenous scholarship, and we remain committed to working alongside all of our relatives in pursuit of a more just and liveable future.

Sincerely and with respect,

The Indigenous Literary Studies Association Council 2020-21

Keavy Martin (President), Kristina Bidwell (President-Elect), Sam McKegney (Past-President), Sarah Henzi (Secretary), Marie-Eve Bradette (Treasurer), Kaitlin Debicki (Early Career Member), Heather Phipps (Early Career Member), Chelsea Fritz (Graduate Student Representative)