February 2021

Indigenous Author's Webinars

Windows on Indigenous Worlds

In the closing days of February, the Knowlton Literary Association presented three webinars with Indigenous authors from across Canada. They were presented for free to four schools in the area, as well as the public from all over the World.

A big thank you to all that attended these webinars.

The first author was Phyllis Webstad, a residential school survivor. The audience, including students from Knowlton Academy, Mansonville Elementary and Heroes Memorial, heard Phyllis’ story of her residential school experience and also about how she started Orange Shirt Day: a day that focuses on the residential school history in Canada and is commemorated every September 30^th by schools across Canada. Questions were asked “live” by the students and they could see how passionate Phyllis was about her stories by her answers.

The second author, Bob Joseph, spoke about the Indian Act of 1876 and how it pertains to today. He spoke to students from secondary 4 at Massey Vanier as well as over 100 viewers. He gave a brief description of the Indian Act, followed by a lively question period with absolutely stunning questions from the Massey Vanier students. Each student was brought up “live” to pose their question. Bob again gave us all so much to think about. To learn more about The Indian Act, click on the link to TV Ontario to catch Bob Joseph’s interview with host Steve Pakin | www.ictinc.ca/press#televis

.

Our third author was Paul Seesequasis. He gave a presentation on Friday evening to 100 plus watchers. He talked about his amazing book "Blanket Toss Under the Midnight Sun" in which he put together pictures taken by various photographers of Indigenous villages between the 1950s and 1980s. Each picture told an incredible story. The presentation was accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation of pictures from his book.

Though we wanted to record the presentations, unfortunately, due to technical problems and glitches, we were unable to do so. Oh the joys of zoom webinars! A big thank you as well to Theatre Lac-Brome for lending us their lobby so the technician, Lucy Hoblyn, the MC, Roger Williams, and the President of the Knowlton Literary Association, Jane Livingston, could be in one “Covid friendly” space to present. We also want to thank the staff at all the schools who organized their students so as many as possible were able to watch the presentations; not an easy feat in these Covid times.

We presented from the traditional and unceded territory of the Wabanakiak (Wa-ban-ak-i-ak) /The Abenaki.