Month: March 2024

Nowrouz Mubarak!

we are going into the year 1403

Nowruz is a combination of Persian words نو now – meaning “new” – and روز ruz – meaning “day“.

To celebrate the start of the solar new year family members gather around a ‘haft-sin’ which is a table consisting of seven symbolic things taken from nature and their names begin with the letter ‘S’ in Farsi!

The arrangement this year was put together by a family at Cedar Place with homemade sweets.

On January 26th I participated in one of UVIC’s Anti-Oppression workshops, “Strong Voice: Rematriation as Resistance.”  It was the first of a series of workshops that I highly encourage you to check out.  You do not need to take them in succession as each workshop is easy to follow as a stand-alone experience.

If you’re curious, Celine also attended the 2nd workshop, “Hear Someone’s Voice Before You See Them: Anti-Oppression Key Principles, Knowledges, and Equity-Focused Action-Based Frameworks.”

Info about the workshops can be found here:

https://www.uvic.ca/equity/education/anti-racism/index.php 

I hope to continue sharing and breaking down some of what was discussed in “Strong Voice” but here is a brief summary.

Yahlnaaw our facilitator from Tagu Consulting contends that rematriation is concerned with the stories and identities of objects and bodies, restoring ancestral and feminine values (like fertility, knowledge, nurturance), and protecting/maintaining those bodies’ and objects’ relation to one another and to their original land.

Where “repatriation” is the passive return of objects and bodies to their ancestral homes (often damaged, disrespected etc), rematriation ensures that objects, bodies, and the land are restored respectfully and that all intersecting relationships are considered.  Land back is not enough.  Restored liveable land back should be the norm.

All anti-oppression work must be guided by rematriation.  If “indigenization” and “decolonization” are not guided by this concept, they have been whitewashed.  How does this resonnate?

Such powerful things to think about.  I look forward to sharing more.