RavenSpace Publishing

07/17/2024

First Nations University of Canada is hiring:https://www.fnuniv.ca/careers/

07/09/2024

Enjoying the videos of the Ethnographic Film Unit at UBC, led by Dr. Charles Menzies (Gitxaała Nation) - you will learn so much about Indigenous food harvesting and botany from this amazing film Bax Laansk: Pulling Together

This is "Bax Laansk: Pulling Together" by Charles Menzies on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

06/21/2024

How are you celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day?

06/18/2024

Deadline to apply for a MOA Internship is July 14.

Are you interested in joining the Fall 2024 intake of the Indigenous Internship Program at MOA? This unique program provides training opportunities for Indigenous people working in museums, or who would like to, in the areas of Collections Management, Conservation, Library and Archives, Oral History Language Laboratory, and Curatorial work. Deadline to apply: July 14, 2024. Apply now: https://i.mtr.cool/tfozyahfdu

Pictured here: IIP spring 2023 cohort (left to right), Tannis Wilson (Haisla), Aaron Rice (Kanien’keha:ka/Mohawk), Haleigh Lamarche (Sucker Creek). Photo by Shabnam Honarbakhsh.

06/18/2024

This weekend, RavenSpace Production Officer, Maryam will be giving a speech, as the recipient of the Top International Finalist for Soroptimist International (selected among 10,000 candidates) "Live Your Dream" program. We are very proud of you, Maryam.

"The Soroptimist Live Your Awards program is a unique education award for women who provide the primary financial support for their families. The Live Your Dream Awards give women the resources they need to improve their education, skills, and employment prospects. Soroptimist invests in education because it transforms lives and ignites change for women."
This extraordinary young woman epitomizes resilience, determination, and triumph. Her story is one of profound adversity and remarkable achievement, marked by her fearless solo escape from Afghanistan and subsequent navigation of the challenges in bringing her family to Canada, as well as supporting them after their arrival in Canada. Throughout these trials, she maintained outstanding academic performance while mastering her fourth language, English. She embodies our collective hope for the future, and seeing her win this award fills us with immeasurable pride. 🌟 Her courage is our inspiration! "

06/16/2024

Apcw!

Community members spellbound by Nusximta, Nuxalk Radio’s feature album produced entirely in the Nuxalk language.

06/06/2024

RavenSpace is at NAISA in Bodø / Bådåddjo, where we heard from the mayor, the rector of Nord University, the president of the Sámi Council (who energized the room to loud and long applause), the Sámi Parliament Council, and the NAISA president.

Music has ranged from death metal and electronic music in the circumpolar Arctic, to music by composer Frode Fjellheim (music for the film Frozen), who played two joiks. Please come say hi to Darcy Cullen.

06/06/2024

Indigenous History Month at UBC, highlights:

June 10 - Indigenous Pop-Up Arcade
Join the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and CEDaR to try out some of the best Indigenous made games.

June 13-16 - MOA has its reopening and festivities

June 25 is the Belkin Walk and Roll decolonization tour.

Indigenous History Month events at UBC Vancouver

05/03/2024

RavenSpace is honoured to be awarded the American Council of Learned Societies Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award in the multimodal category. 🎉

Congratulations to University of London Press for winning in the history category for “Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London" by Simon P. Newman!

And congratulations to all the finalists whose work highlights the importance of exploring new modes of publishing to expand the circulation of knowledge.

Inaugural $50,000 Prize Awards and Expands Open Access Book Publishing in the Humanities

05/03/2024

Enjoying visiting other booths at FNSA, meeting good people doing good work, like Chief Atahm FN school publishers. Joyful listening to their land and place names stories.

05/03/2024

RavenSpace’s Mavis Dixon is at the FNSA today and we hope you will come say “Hi!”

04/30/2024

It is going to be a fire-y summer. Preparation is underway - May 9th at 5pm (PST) learn about extreme heat, including response and preparedness tips to help keep individuals and their families, friends, and communities stay safe during an extreme heat event. Learn more about extreme heat, risk reduction initiatives across B.C., and to connect with other community members on perspectives and experiences as it relates to our individual and collective heat resilience.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/extreme-heat-response-and-preparedness-tickets-888589173137?aff=oddtdtcreator

Speakers will feature Amy Lubik and Magdalena Szpala. Amy Lubik is the Climate Change and Planetary Health Lead for Fraser Health Population and Public Health (PPH). In this role she provides strategic leadership, knowledge translation, and subject matter expertise on issues relating to climate change and health and supports implementation health adaptation initiatives, with a focus on equity and social justice. She is particularly passionate about supporting community resilience through connections and partnerships with nongovernmental organizations, community groups, and local governments.

Magdalena (Magda) Szpala is an uninvited settler on the unceded and ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. In her current position as Director, Sustainability and Resilience at BC Housing, Magda is responsible for integrating social and environmental priorities into the organization’s activities. Magda was responsible for BC Housing’s first Carbon Neutral Action Report and led the development of BC Housing’s first Climate Adaptation Framework. She’s been working on BC Housing’s Extreme Heat Response for the last few years. She also supported the Mobilizing Building Adaptation and Resilience (MBAR) initiative that focuses on resilient building design and renovations. She holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Psychology, a Masters degree in Strategic Leadership toward Sustainability.

These webinars are recorded. Certificates or other types of participation credits are not provided at this time.

Métis in British Columbia can listen and chat with knowledge experts about extreme heat!

04/22/2024

What a wonderful talk by Cherokee Nation author Christopher Teuton, filled with storytelling and teachings about Ayetli gadogv – “stand in the middle”, and the meaning of "Gadugi" - how it takes the contributions of all - large and small - to find our way. With thanks to the SD 57 TRC series and UBC Press for sharing this recording.

Christopher B. Teuton (Cherokee Nation) is Professor and Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington-Seattle, where he is a scholar of Indigenous oral and written literary studies, community-based cultural heritage and language revitalization work, and fieldwor...

04/22/2024

Today in honour of and our planet, we're sharing this gorgeous work by Haida artist Guud san g***s Robert Davidson from the MOA Collections — “Hugging the World.”⁣ ⁣🌎⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
⁣⁣⁣
Hugging the World. [MOA Collections 1415/2]. By Guud san g***s Robert Davidson. Haida. 📷: Derek Tan⁣. ⁣⁣⁣View on MOACAT: https://i.mtr.cool/bpqviofbex

04/16/2024

Manitoba potential authors and Indigenous co-creators: RavenSpace Publishing is presenting a workshop with the University of Manitoba libraries May 14, from 10am-2pm. It's free - please spread the word and join us! WORKSHOP: PUBLISHING AS KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN THE DIGITAL AGE. Time: 10am-2pm.

Registration is required - for more details visit https://www.ravenspacepublishing.org/news/uml-workshop

Funding courtesy of the Mellon Foundation

04/12/2024

Thank you aʔǰɛmaθot Davis McKenzie for your wise words, and congratulations on your nomination (along with your co-authors and RavenSpace Publishing) for this important award.

Here is an excerpt - full text linked below:

"the Internet is also one place where ɬaʔamɩn people now live: more than half of our ɬaʔamɩn people live outside ɬaʔamɩn territory, and most are in cities. We also have a very youthful population, with over half of our people under the age of twenty-five. Digital spaces hold the potential to keep us connected to the territory, the teachings, and each other across physical distances and generations.

"I was blessed to be born into my Chi Chia’s world, to have a grandparent raised in her language and culture and for the most part escaping the horrors of Indian Residential School. [Chi Chia is Elsie Paul, Davis’s grandmother.] Her teachings are key to the very survival of Tla’amin way of life and serve as a powerful counter-narrative to what we learn in schools and society about ourselves and our identity.

"While a website can never fully replicate face-to-face, human interaction, the goal of this digital book is not to offer up an online Elder to replace the familial and ceremonial interactions where teachings are given, received, transmitted. It is, instead, an acknowledgment that new tools exist that can support our existence and healing as a people. And at this point in our history, we can use all the tools we can get. We need to take risks and do our best."

This interview is reprinted with permission from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) award newsletter.

Interview with the co-author of As I Remember It, featured as ACLS Open Access Book Prize Finalist.

04/09/2024

Congratulations, Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald, on your new appointment, and also, for the enduring success of your publication Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and Spirit.

Join us in congratulating IRSHDC Indigenous Advisory Committee member Dr. Jo-ann Archibald on her appointment as the University of the Fraser Valley's fourth chancellor! Read more on UFV Today, the official UFV blog.

04/07/2024

Haida Nation approves the Gaayhllxid/Gíihlagalgang “Rising Tide” Haida Title Lands Agreement!

03/25/2024

Cherokee Earth Dwellers: Stories and Teachings of the Natural World - a talk by Christopher Teuton hosted by School District 57 as part of their Truth and Reconciliation speaker series. March 27 2024

This talk explores our responsibilities as humans to our more-than-human relatives, and the ancestral teachings informed by Ayetli gadogv – “stand in the middle” a Cherokee perspective of the natural world that has been shared amongst the many generations.

From clouds to birds, oceans to quarks, an expansive Cherokee worldview of the living Land lays a foundation for humanity’s responsibility within it.

To register for this powerful discussion with Christopher Teuton click the link below.

Christopher B. Teuton (Cherokee Nation) is Professor and Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington-Seattle, where he is a scholar of Indigenous oral and written literary studies, community-based cultural heritage and language revitalization work, and fieldwor...

03/20/2024

Teachers - looking for a topical subject this week. People are celebrating the Salish Sea turning milky with herring spawn. It must be Spring Equinox!

Elsie Paul, in the publication "As I Remember It" reminds us that name of the main Tla'amin Nation village site, tʼɩšosəm, refers to the water being “milky” with herring spawn.

As we mark Spring Equinox, it's a hopeful day and the hopeful reflection that while the spawning herring disappeared for 20 years from the village named after the spawning, it returned.

https://publications.ravenspacepublishing.org/as-i-remember-it/herring

https://scalar.usc.edu/ravenspace/as-i-remember-it/resource-depletion-the-last-year-of-herring

In the photo below: Judy Mitchell (left) and Marilyn Louie prepare fresh-caught herring for a quick freezing, March 1981.

Judy Mitchell (left) and Marilyn Louie prepare fresh-caught herring for a quick freezing, March 1981. After being wiped out in the 1980s, herring did not return to ɬaʔamɩn until the mid-2000s. The name of the main village site, tʼɩšosəm, refers to the water being “milky” with herring spaw...

03/08/2024

Honour, respect, and admiration for women are the roots of Haida culture. Haida are born into a matrilineal society, and each matriline traces its origins back to a supernatural mother; SG̲uluu Jaad 𝐹𝑜𝑎𝑚 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛, K̲alga Jaad 𝐼𝑐𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛, or Jiila K̲uns 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑊𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛. In matrilineal societies, everyone traces their responsibilities, rights, names, and identities through their mothers (matriline).

Guests often find this unfamiliar cultural distinction a bit mind-bending. Many Canadians and world travellers belong to cultures that adopted patrilineal traditions and don’t even realize they hold this cultural understanding.

The current generation of Haida is reclaiming the understanding of how id Kuuniisii (our Ancestors) honoured, respected, and admired our mothers, their mothers, and their mothers from the beginning of time.

When we adopt this ancestral attitude, we honour all who have ever cared for our women, including our natural and supernatural relatives who thrive on Haida Gwaii. We also honour all those whom our women care for, including every single being who descends from the womb. This is the all-embracing significance of respect and matrilineality.

Happy International Women’s Day to all the women of the world! ♥️

03/08/2024

Today's quote from Elsie Paul qɑʔɑχstɑles:

My great-uncle, that was my grandfather’s brother, used to row everywhere he went. He would go fishing and row all over the place, all day long. That was his life. And we were in Okeover Inlet at the head of the inlet. There’s a river that goes through there but in the fall time it’s kind of fishy – I guess the fish are going up. So he would want to go and get some nice drinkin’ water. So, “Oh, we’ll go over here and bring the containers.” So I go with him. And he would say, “Oh, it’s not far. It’s just over there around that point over there.” So I’m rowing, I’m helping him rowing, and then we’d get to that point and, “Oh, another – next point over.” Next thing you know we’ve gone quite a little distance. So we’d fill up our containers and come back. And to him it was just the normal thing to do. And he would row over to Refuge Cove to get some goods, because there was a store there then. And he would row over there. Take him all day from the head of Okeover to go over there and then come back again. It’s just about dark when he gets back. But that was all okay. Yeah.

“My great-uncle, that was my grandfather’s brother, used to row everywhere he went. He would go fishing and row all over the place, all day long. That was his life.”We lived quite a bit up ...

03/04/2024

03/04/2024

Today is a big day: RavenSpace has a dedicated project donation space- so you can donate and all the money goes toward helping stories, teachings and the wisdom of Indigenous elders be shared in community, and to the public in the right way.

Help RavenSpace publish, sustain and promote the teachings of Indigenous elders in their own voices.

02/29/2024

Today's quote from Elsie Paul's As I Remember It - As I Remember It: Teachings (Ɂəms tɑɁɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder

I think it happens in a lot of cases that we all say later on, “I should have listened. I should have paid attention to what my grandmother was saying or my grandfather was saying.” Because back – earlier days, there was no documenting the teachings. It was all oral teachin’s. You had to listen. So I think that’s where a lot of it is lost now, because people are not listening or taking time to listen, or to share the teachings. That is so important. ’Cause it’s not documented. A lot of it is not documented. There is a little bit documented. But not enough. All the little details. So those things are really important to remember.

It’s very important, our tɑʔɑw. “tɑʔɑw” means “the teaching.” That we all carry the teaching, what we learned from our ancestors, the traditional teaching, the traditional values. “Ɂəms tɑɁɑw” – “our teaching,” that’s what that means.

It’s your job to look after yourself. To be well from inside and to teach that to your children, to teach that to your family, to set that example. When you listen to these stories, or the legends, or examples, and you apply that to your life. That’s why you’re the one that’s responsible for the direction your life takes you.

https://scalar.usc.edu/ravenspace/as-i-remember-it/elsies-great-grandparents

Elsie’s Great-Grandparents
Captain William Timothy and his wife, qɑʔɑχstɑles (Annie Assu), Elsie Paul’s great-grandparents. Their son lɑsɑ (Jim Timothy) was Elsie’s grandfather and gave her the name qɑʔɑχstɑles.
Source: From the photo album collection of Elsie Paul

Captain William Timothy and his wife, qɑʔɑχstɑles (Annie Assu), Elsie Paul’s great-grandparents. Their son lɑsɑ (Jim Timothy) was Elsie’s grandfather and gave her the name qɑʔɑχstɑles.

02/28/2024

Hoobiyee! Vancouver schedule. Will you be there?

🌙H-O-O-B-I-Y-E-E NISGA'A TS'AMIKS EDITION 2024

We are excited to announce the Hoobiyee Nisga'a Ts'amiks Edition 2024 Program! Our team has worked closely with the Nisga'a Tsamiks Vancouver Traditional Dancers, our hosts, to create a program that we hope you'll enjoy. Each dance group has been allocated a 45-minute slot for their performance. As this is a live event, the timing is estimated.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to all Nations for their valuable participation in coming together to celebrate!

We look forward to hosting you!

The program is also available at https://tsamiks.com/hoobiyee

02/28/2024

Today is Pink Shirt Day, and a chance to talk about and address bullying, as we "Lift each other up".

Tshirt design by Corey Bulpitt https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550246342083

Corey Bulpitt is an internationally recognized artist from the Haida Na7ikun-Raven Clan. Bulpitt is known for his graffiti-influenced, Haida-style work, with pieces displayed across the country, including one of his best-known pieces of public work, a mural located under the Granville Street Bridge....

01/12/2024

🎉 KiiGa Sii.ngaay Guudang ‘Láa!