Horizons - Plenary 4

Plenary 4 includes an artistic presentation by Ally Giesbrecht and Jamie Smallboy and the keynote "Arts-based methods as disruptive practices in community-based research" by Lyana Patrick.

Ally Giesbrecht is a settler of Hong Kong descent who resides in Vancouver Chinatown, stolen and unceded territories of the Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlí̓lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəyə̓ m (Musqueam) Nations. She traverses multiple social justice, academic, health professional, and faith community spaces in her roles and identities as an activist, person of colour and faith, mental health occupational therapist, student, educator, clinician-researcher, child of immigrants, and resident of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Jamie Smallboy Tansi Notihkwew Pisim nisikason ekwa nehiyawiskwew Maskwacis ochi niya. Jamie is a single Cree mother of five and grateful to the host nations, and their ancestors for the sacrifices they have made to have the privilege of living within their beautiful territories. Jamie created the Red Ribbon Skirt project in 2020 and co-founded the Sweetgrass Sisters Healing Society in 2021. These initiatives were created to address the intersectionality of social issues and crisis that Urban Indigenous communities face daily. Her poem is a tribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and a call for change.

Dr. Lyana Patrick is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. Patrick’s work focuses on challenging colonial constructions of community planning as it connects to health and well-being. Specifically, her work on the interconnections between justice and health seeks to promote Indigenous understandings of community building and towards better understanding the factors that hinder or help Indigenous peoples to create community connectedness. She has a keen interest in bringing together researchers working in justice, health, geography, Indigenous Studies, community and environmental studies, to pursue an intersectoral/cross-disciplinary approach to addressing justice and health. Other areas of interest Dr. Patrick brings to both her research and teaching are promoting institutional change in the decolonization of education; postcolonial educational approaches that are inclusive of cultural diversity in Canada; understanding municipal planning processes and their connection to history, power, culture and Indigenous resistance; Indigenous community planning as placebased practices that are also reflective of diverse Indigenous perspectives; urban Indigenous community planning; participatory planning processes; and creative community engagement.

Arts-based methodologies have long been incorporated into community-based research. Such methods are often deeply integrated into research that draws upon decolonial, liberatory and self-determining frameworks. This keynote will ask how such methods can be mobilized to engage communities – particularly Indigenous communities – that have long been excluded from the benefits of research and yet have simultaneously experienced “engagement fatigue.” Arts-based methods have the potential to transcend disciplinary boundaries while placing community ownership and control at the center of community-engaged research.