Witnessing the Walking With Our Sisters Exhibit/Memorial: Learning from Trauma

Authors

  • Leisa Desmoulins Lakehead University

Keywords:

Exhibit/Memorials, Indigenous Pedagogies, Learning from Historical Trauma, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Abstract

This article reports on a recent study into volunteers’ experiences learning from the Walking With Our Sisters (WWOS) commemorative exhibit to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The study is grounded in Battiste’s (2013) possibilities of educational transformations, within the context of learning from Indigenous commemorative exhibits that tell the hard truths of colonization (Lonetree, 2009) through visual testimony, and witnessing the stories of Indigenous peoples. Bearing witness involves responding to the call of testimony to act for justice (Laub, 1992). Interviews with 20 participants at two sites of the WWOS touring commemoration provided insights into a learning process of awakening, embodied knowing, and acting for change. Engaging with WWOS reshaped participants’ relationships to events and people in the past as transformative learning. Participants formed generative relationships and act for justice for Indigenous women and girls today.

 

Published

2019-11-20

How to Cite

Desmoulins, L. (2019). Witnessing the Walking With Our Sisters Exhibit/Memorial: Learning from Trauma. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 31(2). Retrieved from https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/5489