[Iswg3906.organizers] ISWG Working Group Update - November 3rd / 2013

[A.R.J. Gracey]

Hello folks:

Just a quick update about our previous working group discussions on Sunday,
October 27th, 2013. It's a bit long, sorry in advance. These are in effect
the meeting minutes.

(1) The first item we discussed was the group's ongoing budgetary
discussions setting out how we can better define budget lines to reflect
our group's overall vision and concerns. We talked about prioritizing
solidarity actions and donations with local, grassroots groups and
organizations that are largely excluded from accessing institutional
funding. In prioritizing our efforts, a discussion the group must recognize
as being one of ongoing concern and negotiation, we are able to make some
distinctions in budgetary and other support requests, providing us with a
set of guidelines for decision making.

(2) With this in mind, and in the interest in facilitating ongoing
relationships with individuals and groups we work with, it was thought that
support requests which reflect these qualifications and which speak to how
the group seeking support meets them, will help build stronger
relationships between ISWG and potential allies. In addition, requests for
support should also address two questions guided by the ongoing, negotiated
vision for the working group's relationship-building strategies and
practices. These two questions which we are asking those requesting our
support to answer include: (1) How is this particular kind of work
decolonising? (2) How do you envision your actions taking on structures of
power such as colonialism and racism? Answering these questions may reveal
other ways ISWG could potentially support allies, and it will create spaces
for analyzing issues together, to reflect on issues together, ultimately
building better relationships between the working group and groups seeking
our support.

(3) We also talked about potentially creating a web-based presence for our
work, building on past discussions of such a presence.

(4) We discussed an issue from last meeting regarding a statement and
potential actions in regards to missing and murdered Native women in
Canada. A public inquiry is needed and we talked about how a statement from
the union and potential actions by the working group could support the
requests for an inquiry. People at the working group meeting decided it was
best to first reach out to people in the community doing such work to gauge
what is being done and what work may be in need of support. We wondered if
CUPE Ontario or CUPE national had undertaken any work on this issue, and
more importantly what organizations and groups within the community may be
doing and what kind of support they require.

(5) Finally, we talked about our ongoing efforts to revisit the workshops
that are an integral part of our work. We talked about producing a small
pamphlet or piece of literature based on the first workshop hosted by Peter
and Devon and the counter-stories or counter-histories they discussed. What
would such a document look like if it were tailored for Hamilton
specifically and perhaps this region more generally? Would we focus on the
Treaties governing this area? Could it perhaps be the first in an ongoing
series of resources dedicated to such counter-histories? It would certainly
reflect some of the reflections from the workshop, provide questions for
future workshops, and function to advertise future workshops.

In terms of the actual next workshop, we talked about going back to the
original idea to focus on Thomas King's 'The Truth About Stories.' We
thought it was important to maintain this as the theme to the next workshop
because participants would most likely already be familiar with the piece
so we decided to move forward with organizing the next workshop based on
this theme. In order to do so, we thought it would be best to draft a
message to workshop participants to recap just briefly the ideas and events
from the first workshop, to remind participants what the second workshop is
about, to direct them to the online resources to read prior to the second
workshop, and to provide a road-map detailing what the second workshop
would entail.

The timeline for the workshop would be as follows: (1) Announcement of the
workshop would go out next week (November 11th-15th) (2) Summary of 1st
workshop and road-map for 2nd workshop the following week (November 18th-
22nd). (3) Final reminders of workshop (Nov 25th-29th) (4) Second ISWG
workshop Saturday, November 30th, 1 p.m. at the Artbar Wordbar (primary
choice) or some other venue.

If you are interested in helping out, please come out to our next ISWG
meetings. We are looking to have two meetings before the workshop on the
30th. The first meeting would be either this Saturday, November 9th, at 1
p.m. or Sunday, November 10th, at 1 p.m., and the second would be either
Saturday, November 23rd, at 1 p.m. or Sunday, November 24th, at 1 p.m. What
days work best for folks? It seems as though a lot of people like the early
afternoon on Sundays. Shall we stick with that day and time for now?

Sorry for the long email.

Take care,

Tony
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