Date & time
Monday, December 7, 2020
11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Registration is closed
Conferences & lectures
Share this event:
Systemic Racism Against Indigenous Peoples
Speaker(s)
Nakuset, Executive Director Native Women’s Shelter of Montréal, and Pitseolak Pfeifer, President, Inuit Solutions
Cost
This event is free
Website
Where
Online
A video recording is available here.
Nakuset, Executive Director of the Native Women's Shelter of Montréal
Nakuset is Cree from Lac la Ronge, Saskatchewan. She was adopted by a Jewish family in Montreal and draws on her adoptee experience in her advocacy work for Indigenous children in care. She was voted “Woman of the Year 2014” by the Montreal Council of Women. In recent years, she has been visible in different platforms including TEDxMontrealWomen, the Viens Commission, and WE Day. She has spearheaded and run the Cabot Square project since its inception and co-founded Resilience Montreal. She is dedicated to improving the lives of urban aboriginals.
Nakuset will share the obstacle through her work, concerning systemic racism with the police and youth protection. She will also share initiatives, solutions and advocacy to try to improve the relationship between these institutions.
Pitseolak Pfeifer, President, Inuit Solutions
Born and raised in Iqaluit, Pitseolak Pfeifer builds on over 25 years of Inuit advocacy and public policy experience in his management consulting work with Inuit Solutions in the area of governance and community development. Pitseolak is a published interdisciplinary scholar, with an M.A. in Northern Studies from Carleton University, whose research interests intersect Northern development and Inuit epistemologies in applied projects. He often guest lectures to strengthen different communities of practice across Canada and internationally.
On Knowledge Racism
This talk brings into discussion a dimension of racism that is starting to gain recognition within the framework of 'reconciliation' and 'decolonization' in academia, albeit in a rather performative manner: knowledge racism. It largely remains a theoretical pursuit, pivoting on the symbolic and marginal importance of Indigenous knowledges, with little consideration of the structural implications and impacts in practice. I take up these issues based on my experience in academia and in the policy sector, inviting audiences to engage with Inuit critical perspectives that underscore the work ahead of us as a society.