In December 2015 Daniel Heath Justice began a Twitter campaign to share the names of Indigenous writers. The reason for his efforts was to: “…push back against the frequent assumptions that our literary history is any less complex, robust, or diverse than that of other peoples (Daniel Heath Justice, Why Indigenous Literatures Matter?). In solidarity with his efforts, in 2018 a group of interested individuals from the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program, UBC Library, and the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology at the University of British Columbia came together to develop the first Honouring Indigenous Writers Wikipedia event. The purpose of the event was to increase awareness of Indigenous literature and improve the coverage of Indigenous writers on Wikipedia. Since then, the event has evolved to include author readings, panel discussions, and workshops with many partnerships from Canadian academic institutions and organizations.
The Public Humanities Hub is pleased to co-sponsor a series of author readings, workshops and panels, and Wikipedia activities for #HonouringIndigenousWriters 2022, taking place throughout the month of March.
March 7 , 11AM-12PM PT | A Reading and Discussion with Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm and Dr. Dallas Hunt on (Re)Generation: The Poetry of Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
March 9, 11AM-12PM PT | “Making a Difference Editing Wikipedia” with Rie Namba and Will Engle
March 14 | “Words to Give Back: Words that have lifted us up” Poster Board Workshop with Peter Morin 11AM-12PM PT at CEDaR Lab, and a communal walk 12-2PM PT
March 15, 7-8:30PM MT | A Reading and Discussion with Joshua Whitehead and Dr. Daniel Heath Justice
March 16, 7-8PM PT | A Reading with Kim Senklip Harvey on Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story
March 22, 7-8:15PM MT | “Books to Build on Workshop: Indigenous Literatures for Learning” with Dr. Aubrey Hanson, Dr. Erin Spring, Anja Dressler Araujo, Maureen Plante, Jadyn Fischer-McNab, and Rachel Stubbs
And weekly Wikipedia activities.
Honouring Indigenous Writers is supported by many event partners and sponsors including: UBC Library, UBC Okanagan Library, First Nations and Indigenous Studies (FNIS), UBC Public Humanities, BCcampus, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS), Public Humanities Hub Okanagan (PHH-O), University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources, Indigenous Programs & Services Okanagan Campus, and UBC’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology.