Decolonizing – An Alphabet (Call for Submissions)

“A” for Anti-Oppression

It’s about respect

It’s about history

How the Treaties supersede the Canadian flag

They’re about peace and friendship, nation to nation

right relation, our sacred responsibility on this unceded land

Black Lives Matters and we’re proud

All lives have not mattered

not had the same rights and freedoms

So we lift these up, elevate those voices

It’s not often we get recognized in this way

I was touched

It’s not against veterans

But to honour history and healing while

the violence, the bullying is still happening

Justice for others can feel like an attack.

I knew I had privilege but I felt it this time.

It’s hard to hear others’ truths sometimes.

Protocols. Norms. They can change.

We can change. We’re all decolonizing.

We’re steeped in it. Racism.

Colonialized laws, symbols, institutions.

That M’ikmaq flag is contested too.

The post just got uncomfortable

The post is lashing out

The post got deleted

You need humility and grace

when learning and unlearning

a willingness, a responsibility

to one day get to a place where

there is no more injustice or pain

for anyone

a place of respect and peace, a place of real friendship

This found poem was put together from several conversations about the flags, about racism and colonialism, about M’ikmaq sovereignty and Black Lives Matter.

Decolonization – An Alphabet (A Call for Submissions)

We’ve been having conversations about racism, equity,  Black Lives Matter and Mi’kmaq sovereignty.  As a way to lift up these voices, we are inviting BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+ writers, poets, artists, and healers facing any kind of systemic barrier,  to choose a letter of the alphabet. Any one from B-Z and make their own artful creation related to decolonization. It could be Binary, Consent, Decolonization, Equity…….Xenophobia. The challenge is to make it a creation that is based on a conversation with at least one other person on this topic.  So much more is possible and generative through dialogue. Create in a team or collective. Different backgrounds. Different artforms. Use visuals. Use video and audio. Play, debate, work through.

The challenge is to make it a creation that is based on dialogue. So much more is possible and generative through dialogue. Create in a team or collective. Different backgrounds. Different artforms. Use visuals. Use video and audio. Play, debate, work through.

Write to nanci@tatacentre.com with your submission. We will accept on a rolling basis until each letter in the alphabet is taken. First come first served on the letters. We will keep you posted on availability. We will provide each team or collective with $200 for completed poems or art pieces once the project is completed. Deadline to submit: December 31, 2020.

In the end, we’ll have a crowd-sourced alphabet related to Decolonization for our website to further the dialogue. A moving collective alphabet of poems and artwork.

Letters that have been taken: A for Anti-oppression; D for Dyke; E for Exile; I; L for Land; M; N for Nora; P. S for Sensory-friendly; V for Visibility.