Saturday, May 28th

Opening Reception - Location: Science A-106

8:30 - 9:00 am     Opening Ceremony with Keith Chiefmoon, Onistaya Kopi

Opening Session - Location: Science A-106

9:30 - 10:45 am     Session 1

The Erotics of Alliance: Empowerment, Ecology, and the Body

• Co-organized and Chaired by Sam McKegney
• Lesley Belleau, "The Ancient Presence of the Erotic in Louise Halfe's The Crooked Good
• Michelle Coupal, "Embodied Alliance in Eden Robinson's 'Terminal Avenue'"
• June Scudeler, "'These Animals on Stage, These Creatures': Rene Highway's Erotic Ecology"
• Lisa Tatonetti (co-organizer), "Health Sovereignty, Erotics, and Early Indigenous HIV/AIDS Activism in the U.S.: The Legacy of Carole laFavor"

Keynote Address - Location: Science A-106

11:00 am - 12:30 pm     Eldon Yellowhorn: Stories of the Once-Were People

Akaitapiiwa is the Blackfoot term for ancestors and its literal translation is the 'once-were people.'  The Blackfoot phrase niitakksikaitapitsinikii means 'I will tell stories of ancient times.'  When these old stories are retold today we accept that they come to us from time immemorial.  This implies that they are immune to chronology.  Since the days of Franz Boas, anthropologists too have accepted that myths exist outside of time.  That mythology is better conceived as a psychological device rather than a record of the past.  My studies in archaeology brought me back to those old Blackfoot stories and I decided to revisit that idea of time immemorial.  I began to explore Blackfoot mythology to see if I could use those old stories to interpret the archaeological record of the northern plains.  I wondered if I could use the to construct theories to explain the origin of archaeological sites and if so then I could determine the antiquity of those old stories.  I began with the premise that oral narratives were inspired by lived experience and from my studies I discovered that time immemorial is vulnerable to chronology.  My presentation will reveal the insights I gained about Blackfoot oral narratives and exactly how old are those olden days.

Renate Eigenbrod Mentorship Lunch - Location: Social Sciences 105

12:30 - 2:00 pm     Meetings between emergent scholars and established mentors in their fields.

Concurrent Mid-Afternoon Sessions

2:00 - 3:30 pm     Session 2 - Location: Science A-13

Beyond Anthropocentrism: The Poetics of Kinship

• Sarah Henzi, chair
• Michael Minor, "Duncan Mercredi and Wolf: Animal Alliance in the Urban Environment"
• Jasmine Spencer, "Regenerative Language: Peter Kalifornsky's Literary Method as Praxis"
• Angela Van Essen, "peyahtik (quietly, slowly, carefully): reading nehiyaw poetry"

2:00 - 3:30 pm     Session 3 - Location: Science A-15

Coercion and Refusal: Decolonizaing Gender and Territoriality

• Warren Cariou, chair
• David Parent, "Writing Metis Gender Relations: post-WWII Indigenous Masculinity in Western Canada"
• Natalie Knight, "Tloo-qwah-nah and Nuu-chah-nulth recognition: poetics and politics in George Clutesi's Potlach"
• Brandon Kerfoot, "Reading Contemporary Unikkaaqtuat (Traditional Stories): Revenge, Responsibility, and Sexual Violence in the Works of Alootook Ipellie, Rachel Qitsualik and Sean Tinsley"

2:00 - 3:30 pm     Session 4 - Location: Science A-17

The Complex "Terrain of Solidarity": Troubling "Recognition," Complicating "Community"

• Member organized session
• Shaun Stevenson, "Towards a Narrative Ethics: Storying Community-Based Researched Practice"
• Margaret Boyce, "Carceral Recognition in Canada's Penal System: An Analysis of the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge
• Amber Dean, "Colonialism and/as University-Community Engagement: Toward a Decolonizing Praxis"

Concurrent Late-Afternoon Sessions

4:00 - 5:30 pm     Session 5 - Location: Science A-13

Singularities and Solidarities: Expressive Culture Amid Political Constraint

• Jesse Archibald-Barber, chair
• Jade McDougall, "Smallest Victories: Creating a Resistant Archive through Story"
• Alana Fletcher, "Participatory Refusal of Sahtu Dene Orature"
• Nancy Van Styvendale, "Solidarity Between Bars?" Writing from the Saskatoon Correctional Centre"

4:00 - 5:30 pm     Session 6 - Location: Science A-15

Radical Pedagogy and Anticolonial Alliance

• Deanna Reder, chair
• Shaina Humble & Buddy Wesley, "'Forts and Furs': Building Alliance in Treaty 7 Territory"
• Marc Andre Fortin, "Burning the Totem Pole: Violence and Decolonization in a Graduate Indigenous Literature Seminar"
• Dallas Hunt, "Askiy ka-piscipowin: Treaty Eight Communities as Environmental Sacrifice Zones"

4:00 - 5:30 pm     Session 7 - Location: Science A-17

Indigenize Now!: Transformations Inside and Outside the Academy

• Member organized session - Convened by Ashok Mathur
• Featuring: Krista Arias, Bialkowska, Monica Good, Lindsay Harris, Amberley John, David Lacho

Poetry Reading, Book Launches, and Open Mic Night - Location: Senate Room, Alma Hotel

7:00 - 10:00 pm

Featuring:

• Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
• Joanne Arnott
• Marilyn Dumont
• Lee Maracle
• Gregory Scofield
• Richard Van Camp

Also Featuring Book Launches by:

• Blair Stonechild, The Knowledge Seeker: Embracing Indigenous Spirituality, University of Regina Press, 2016
• Deanna Reder & Linda Morra, eds., Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures, Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2016
• Keavy Martin & Dylan Robinson, eds., Arts of Engagement: Taking Aesthetic Action In and Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2016
• Neal McLeod, 100 Days of Cree, University of Regina Press, 2016
• Heather Macfarlane & Armand Ruffo, eds., Introduction to Indigenous Literary Criticism in Canada, Broadview, 2015
• Keavy Martin, Julie Rak, Norma Dunning, eds., Life Among the Qallunaat by Mini Aodla Freeman
• Margery Fee, Literary Land Claims: The "Indian Land Question" from Pontiac's War to Attiwapiskat

And Featuring Opportunities to Play the Indigenous Video Game Never Alone.

• Throughout the evening, attendees will have the opportunity to play or watch the Inupiat video game Never Alone: Kisima Innitchuna. Developed by the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Upper One Games (the first Indigenous-owned video game company in US), this game is set in Inupiat territory and is based on a traditional Inupiat story which is told in the language. Everyone is welcome to stop by and play the game or cheer on others who are making their way through the beautiful and profound story of Nuna and her companion the fox, who must find the cause of a mysterious blizzard if they are to save Nuna's people.

Sunday, May 29th

Concurrent Morning Sessions

9:00 - 10:30 am     Session 8 - Location: Science A-13

Examining the Terrain of Alliance among Indigenous, Diasporic, and Settler Peoples

• Sophie McCall, chair
• Aloys Fleischmann, "'The Pain of Glass': Strategies for Indigenous/Diasporic Alliance in Lee Maracle's 'Yin Chin' and Joy Kogawa's Itsuka"
• Maral Moradipour, "Good Neighbours: Relationality in Leanne Simpson's 'nogojiwanong'"
• Johannah Bird, "'As intersecting circles combine': Kinship, Alliance, and Autonomy in the Poetry of Marilyn Dumont, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, and Moe Clark"
• Victoria Cowan, "The Gift of Story: Beth Brant's Decolonizing Poetics"

9:00 - 10:30 am     Session 9 - Location: A-15

Forging Futurities: Technology, Territory, and Genre

• Jesse Archibald-Barber, chair
• Jordan Fischer, "Fear of a Red Planet: Decolonization and Resistance in Indigenous Science Fiction"
• Blake Bilmer, "Physical Realms, Dreams and Spaces of Indigeneity in Aaron Paquette's Lightfinder"

9:00 - 10:30 am     Session 10 - Location: A-17

Re-Storying in Solidarity: A Roundtable on the Kahswentha Indigenous Knowledges Initiative

• Sam McKegney, chair
• Jennifer Hardwick, "Colonial Narratives of Kingston and Queen's"
• Kanonhsyonne Janice Hill, "Instructions of the Two-Row Wampum"
• Rebecca Rolfe, "Enacting the Kahswentha"
• Karl Hardy, "Situating KIKI within Settler/Colonialism and Indigenous Studies"
• Erin Sutherland, "Re-Storying Space: Talkin' Back to Johnny Mac"
• Natasha Stirrett, "Kingston's Prison for Women and Indigenous Storytelling"
• Trevor Phillips, "Solidarity as Action"

Concurrent Late-Morning Sessions

11:00 am - 12:30 pm     Session 11 - Location: Science A-13

Inuit Intellectual and Literary Genealogies

• Sarah Henzi, chair
• Elise Couture-Grondin, "Intellectual Genealogies: An Analysis of An Antane Kapesh's Eukuan nin matshimanitu Innu-ikueu / Je suis une maudite sauvagesse and Mini Aodla Freeman's Life Among the Qallunaat"
• Keavy Martin, "The Unspoken in Life Among the Qallunaat"
• Mini Aodla Freeman, "Writing Life Among the Quallunaat"

11:00 am - 12:30 pm     Session 12 - Location: A-15

Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone): Researching and Teaching Indigenous Video Games

• Member organized session
• Warren Cariou, "Performance, Kinetic Memory, and Oral Traditions in Kisima Inŋitchuŋa (Never Alone)"
• David Gaertner, "How Should I Play These?: Teaching Video Games in Indigenous Literature Classrooms"
• Nathan Lagace, "Digital Indigenous Storytelling: Video Games, Storytelling and the Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
• Maize Longboat, "Intergenerational Indigenous Gaming: Conceptualizing Youth Perspectives on Never Alone"
• Katherine Meloche, "Competing Sovereignty: Gaming Inupiat Protocols and Storytelling in Kisima Inŋitchuŋa"

11:00 am - 12:30 pm     Session 13 - Location: A-17

Towards a Two Row Research Methodology: Between Autonomy and Alliance

• Member organized session
• Carrie McMullin, "Roles in and Responsibilities to Multiple Communities"
• Daniel Coleman, "Towards a Two Row Politics of Respect"
• Kaitlin Debicki, "Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen, Thanksgiving, and Bi-Cultural Discourse in Research"
• Rick Hill, "The History of the Two Row and the Internal Script that Drives Our Thinking"
• Rick Monture, "The Two Row Wampum and the Boundaries of Knowledge Mobilization"

Lunch Break

12:30 - 1:30 pm     

Aboriginal Roundtable - Location: Senate Room, Alma Hotel

1:30 - 3:30 pm     "Decolonial Solidarities and the Work of Sharron Proulx-Turner: A Roundtable Discussion"

• MC'd by Richard Van Camp
• Organized by Keavy Martin, Sophie McCall, and Aruna Srivastava
• Featuring: Joanne Arnott, David Bateman, Susan Briscoe, Weyman Chan, Marilyn Dumont, Hiromi Goto, Tasha Hubbard, Larissa Lai, Beverly Little Thunder, Ashok Mathur, Sharanpal Ruprai, Gregory Scofield, Aruna Srivastava

Plenary Session - Location: Senate Room, Alma Hotel

4:00 - 5:30 pm     Plenary on Applied Humanities Work with Indigenous Youth

This session, introduced by Deanna Reder and Kristina Bidwell, will honour and carry on the work of the late Jo-Ann Episkenew who had been scheduled to give a keynote address at this year's ILSA gathering.  The session will involve Associates of the Indigenous Peoples' Health Research Centre at the University of Regina and First Nations University of Canada, and may include a workshop component.

• Featuring: Dustin Brass and Erin Goodpipe

Closing Ceremony - Senate Room, Alma Hotel

5:30 - 5:45 pm