Kristi Leora Gansworth, “Who Decolonizes?” UGP1 Visiting Keynote

Responding to the residency theme and proposed decolonization framework, this discussion will draw on Anishinaabe dbaajimowinan (storytelling) and other worldviews. The process of decolonization in terms of materiality, internal processes, and relationships to Spirit are considerations. Truly effective change is informed by questions of practical responsibility for humans negotiating their positions in oppressive structures and systems.

Kristi Leora Gansworth is an enrolled citizen of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinaabeg and grew up on the Tuscarora Reservation, New York. Her family has lived and been in relationship with the area around Lake Ontario and Niagara Falls, and their Algonquin-Anishinaabe homelands throughout what is now called Quebec and Ontario, for generations.

As an Indigenous geographer, Leora is interested in the ways that sacred Anishinaabe knowledge can direct current and future generations to vision, understand and experience Mino bimaadiziwin, a balanced way of life, through environmental health and wellness.

Leora has been trained as a writer and scholar of literature, and a Goddard alumna (MFAW ‘12). She is currently researching eels and Indigenous legal traditions for her PhD in Geography through York University. 

Monday, February 3, 7:30 pm Haybarn Theatre

Free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Undergraduate Studies Program.