Untitled video

EB
by Eilish Brennan2 views·Updated Nov 8, 2020
Create your own

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated

  1. Hello, everyone.
  2. My name is Alice Brennan.
  3. I am a 19 year old white woman, and I
  4. come from a very small town of about 8000 people
  5. in southwestern Ontario called the Stool.
  6. This is the community I will be choosing to focus
  7. on in my assignment today.
  8. I grew up very sheltered from diversity.
  9. Everyone in list will looked like me, talked like me
  10. and dressed like me.
  11. Our community events were often centered around agriculture, which drew
  12. in a crowd of farmers from surrounding areas.
  13. We almost never celebrate diversity as a community.
  14. It wasn't until coming to Queens that I had heard
  15. a land acknowledgment my high school never gave them, and
  16. nor did my elementary school or anywhere in my small
  17. town. For a matter of fact, after doing some research,
  18. I learned that list will situated on on a Shana
  19. by land.
  20. But I can tell you, from firsthand experience living in
  21. this town my entire life.
  22. There has never been any recognition of that in any
  23. way, shape or form, since the stool is a predominantly
  24. white town.
  25. It wasn't really until the eighth grade that I learned
  26. or understood anything about indigenous peoples.
  27. In eight grade, my teacher invited a local indigenous man
  28. named Kristen Dennis.
  29. He came into her classroom to speak about his culture,
  30. his artwork in his survival of sixties scoop.
  31. This day stands to be one of my favorite memories
  32. from elementary school.
  33. I came to learn that Christian was an outstanding community
  34. member and that he was involved in a number of
  35. ways. I've included one of his artworks in the bottom
  36. right corner for a very long time.
  37. Christian was the person that taught me everything I knew
  38. about indigenous culture.
  39. He has done multiple interviews with local news stations about
  40. his experience surviving the sixties scoop and growing up as
  41. a racialized citizen in a very white town.
  42. I've actually included part of an interview that he had
  43. conducted with a local news station here.
  44. I encourage you to pause the video and watch it.
  45. In the summertime.
  46. My small community came together to organize a by pocket
  47. quality march and rally, which elevated marginalized voices in our
  48. community, including Christians.
  49. What I'm about to read are excerpts of what Kristen
  50. told reporter in an interview before the event.
  51. I've been marginalized just because of my long hair in
  52. the color of who I am, he said.
  53. I've had that happen all my life to the point
  54. where I suffer from PTSD.
  55. It was really bad.
  56. I had bad PTSD, especially when I was around police
  57. officers. I would start shaking and going into convulsions because
  58. I was beaten up by them.
  59. I've been profiled many times in this town, and I've
  60. actually been very grateful for the police officers who would
  61. actually call me up.
  62. I've complained, I said.
  63. I said, Look, I'm an outstanding citizen in this town
  64. and they apologized, and I'm grateful for that.
  65. I believe List Will is a town that's evolving.
  66. It's a town that's moving into a new understanding of
  67. itself. The BIPAC quality march and rally stands the sign
  68. of strength and resilience.
  69. As I said in June of 2020 community members came
  70. together to organize and execute a by pocket quality march
  71. which helped elevate bipod community voices.
  72. Here's another quote from Christian.
  73. Who I am today is because of the last seven
  74. generations, and what I do today affects the next seven
  75. generations. So to see young people coming out here today
  76. means that we can take responsibility that we're doing something
  77. right. I do think it is important to note that
  78. after the rise and systemic racism our world started facing
  79. in June, community members and list will became interested in
  80. finding a solution and listening to stories from marginalized people
  81. in our community.
  82. In no way is my small town perfect, but I
  83. do believe there's a lot of hope that could be
  84. found there.
  85. About 200 people came out to the march to demonstrate
  86. their support, which is a huge step for a predominantly
  87. white community.
  88. As I said, we're not perfect and there's a ton
  89. of room for improvement.
  90. One of things I'd like to execute is an idea
  91. that stemmed this summer after the By Park march.
  92. I personally reached out to Christian after hearing him speak
  93. to ask if he would be interested in running an
  94. art class for people that would purchase a ticket.
  95. I knew that he had written art classes before in
  96. elementary schools and high schools, so I knew he would
  97. likely be willing.
  98. The money from the ticket would go toe to the
  99. supplies, but also to an indigenous charity of his choosing
  100. the idea of having participants pay for a ticket would
  101. be a way of regulating the demographic, ensuring that only
  102. those who are genuinely interested in learning about indigenous culture
  103. and heritage would participate, minimizing the chances of a white
  104. supremacist showing up.
  105. I'd also like to see the by pocket quality march
  106. becoming something annual.
  107. This would provide more of an opportunity for BIPAC voices
  108. in our community to be heard and share their new
  109. experiences. Overall, I think List will has good indigenous presence,
  110. considering its size, but it doesn't have enough appreciation for
  111. indigenous cultures.
  112. However, I'm quite hopeful that this will change quickly based
  113. on how accepting and progressive the community has been in
  114. the last six months.