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Positionality Statement

This document is Jessica O'Gorman's positionality statement. It discusses her identity as a white woman from Canada who is a guest on the unceded land of the Kanien'kehá:ka people in Montreal. She acknowledges her privilege as a beneficiary of settler colonialism and aims to unlearn Eurocentric views. As a future teacher, she wants to properly educate students about Indigenous history and issues. Her goal in this course is to learn how to situate herself respectfully as a non-Indigenous student and fulfill her responsibilities as a guest on this land.

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682 views5 pages

Positionality Statement

This document is Jessica O'Gorman's positionality statement. It discusses her identity as a white woman from Canada who is a guest on the unceded land of the Kanien'kehá:ka people in Montreal. She acknowledges her privilege as a beneficiary of settler colonialism and aims to unlearn Eurocentric views. As a future teacher, she wants to properly educate students about Indigenous history and issues. Her goal in this course is to learn how to situate herself respectfully as a non-Indigenous student and fulfill her responsibilities as a guest on this land.

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api-384976039
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Jessica O'Gorman

260956476

Positionality Statement

I am a guest on the unceded land of Tiohti:áke Montreal, of which the Kanien'kehá:ka

are the traditional owners. I am a white woman, originally from Winnipeg, the land of the

Anishinaabeg/Ojibway people, and I later moved to Santa Clara, California, or the Tamien

Nation. I am of European descent, specifically from the United Kingdom and Canada.

As Margaret Kovach explains, self-location and positioning oneself are essential to

the personal understanding of "power differentials in society and for taking action to further

social justice" (Kovach 2009, p.110). I come from a line of colonizers on both sides of my

family, and I find it necessary to address my privilege as a member of a white colonial

society. Being white makes it very easy for me to claim innocence and avoid my

responsibilities, and rather than take action, it is often easy to feel guilt and do nothing about

it except "acknowledge" my privilege. However, feeling this guilt is a privilege in itself, and

positioning oneself is to take responsibility, not to be indifferent.

I feel that Koleszar-Green's explanation of "guest" best explains my relationship with

Indigenous land. She describes being a guest on Indigenous land as understanding the

"responsibilities" of learning "rematriation" of the land (Koleszar-Green, 2018, p.174).

Though in previous positionality statements and acknowledgments, I have addressed myself

as a settler, Koleszar-Green explains how a settler's relationship with Indigenous peoples is

superficial and promotes ownership over the land rather than the Guest's stewardship

approach. I recognize my privilege and attempt to use my privilege in a way that "centres the

community" rather than myself (Koleszar-Green 2018, p. 174). Though I do not necessarily

'actively' engage with members of any Indigenous community (though I am not too sure what
defines actively) in the sense that I have not visited communities, I am aware of my

responsibilities and my position, and I support Onkwehonwe communities and their

resistance against colonial projects and oppressive actions. I also seek to, on topics I feel

knowledgeable on, educate those who are ignorant of their position on Indigenous lands and

those who are intolerant of Indigenous beliefs.

To learn more about Indigeneity, I must first unlearn my current thought processes.

Especially considering how embedded my knowledge is in the systems of settler colonialism

and knowing that I am a beneficiary of this system, I can say undoubtedly that my knowledge

and my ways of life promote and perpetuate my white privilege.

My interest in this course stems from my lack of knowledge on the topics of

Indigenous peoples. I was unaware of residential schools, the Indian Act, and other issues

concerning Indigenous peoples until I arrived in Montreal. My high school in the United

States only lightly discussed these issues, even the Native American displacement and

disavowal during Christopher Columbus's sail to America, despite Columbus being a topic

discussed in classrooms. I am studying to be a teacher, and when I discovered these events, I

wanted to ensure that students would be aware of these issues from a younger age than I

found them. I hope to learn more about implementing Indigenous values in the classroom and

how to begin educating youth on heavy topics such as residential schooling and displacement.

My goal is to teach younger students how to be active Guests and respect the traditional

keepers of the land.

As a student, I hope to understand how to situate myself and learn about my

responsibilities as a non-Indigenous student. I have taken a few courses that concentrate on

Indigenous issues. Every class I have taken has been instructed from a different perspective

and has provided me with different views on issues like white fragility, Indigenous and Black

solidarity, and reconciliation. I think learning the same topic from various perspectives adds a
lot to the learning experience, and along with that, this is the only course I have taken that

provides a detailed analysis of solely Indigenous-related topics.

I hope to understand my role as a guest on Indigenous land and how I can stop

perpetuating Eurocentric worldviews, especially in a classroom setting. Given my implicit

biases, it is easy to center myself and avoid my responsibilities as a Guest. I need to become

more active with Indigenous communities and hold myself accountable. I see myself as very

accountable for my choices, as I think that every individual makes a part of the whole of a

community, and every individual impacts how that community acts overall. If every white

settler instead started working towards reconciliation and learned the history of the land, then

the world would be a lot simpler. Though I think we have a long way to go before

decolonization is viewed more as a possibility and less of a distant prospect, we could be one

step closer if every white individual, like myself, held themselves accountable.

My responsibility as a white woman on Tiohti:áke land is to "know the colonial

stories and to support the resistance" of the Kanien'kehá:ka (Koleszar-Green 2018, p.175).

My responsibilities are to educate myself on the colonial impact on Indigenous peoples and

the Indigenous culture that still thrives today. Given my relationship with Indigenous land

and its peoples, my responsibility is not to isolate Guests and Indigenous peoples in separate

circles but to engage in an active relationship that promotes reciprocity and becomes a part of

the local circle of relationships. Engaging respectfully with members of Indigenous

communities is to be clear about my motivations to learn as a Guest and to self-locate to

affirm my perspectives. (Kovach 2009, p.111) My motivations are to learn more about

Indigenous culture and how to center these values more specifically in a younger classroom

setting. Being in relationship with Indigenous peoples and knowledges informs my choices as

it brings me closer to the community that needs to be centred. Learning more about balance

and reciprocity allows me to engage in these values.


Bibliography
Kovach, Margaret. “Chapter 6: Situating Self, Culture, and Purpose in Indigenous

Inquiry.” In Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations and Contexts,

109–20. University of Toronto Press, 2009.

Koleszar-Green, Ruth. “What Is a Guest? What Is a Settler?” Cultural and

Pedagogical Inquiry 10, no. 2 (2019). https://doi.org/10.18733/cpi29467.

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