Tarek's Blog

Blanket Exercise 

Tarek Diabmarzouk

A) Reflect on the Blanket exercise. What did you learn? How did you feel?

During the blanket exercise, I was able to connect with my emotions while still demonstrating an understanding of knowledge based on the shared discussion with our guest speaker. In this session, I learned a timeline of events where first peoples were unrecognized and silenced. Many new subjects were hard to talk about, but was completely necessary to work towards truth and reconciliation. By accepting that all these events did happen, we are able to at least reach the truth in “truth and reconciliation.” As well, it was interesting to learn more about Métis culture and when the guest speaker was in school, the other students were not as educated as her on this subject.  Personally, It was a bit harder for me to stay focused because of the fact that many people are still being assimilated, colonized, and undergoing genocide during this day and age. As an arab, I feel strongly about the Palestinian people and what is happening during these hard times. I recognize and acknowledge the colonization of Palestine that has been going on for over seventy five years and how similar it can be to how Indigenous people have been assimilated and colonized. Because of my strong feelings, I made some connections with what was happening during the blanket exercises and it made me feel frustrated and useless and hopeless in such way I cannot help with anything that goes on. However, I agree that the discomfort of the blanket exercise made me realize how Indigenous people may feel about the colonization of their lands and the assimilation of their culture. In some way there is a connection in that most people of colour are Indigenous to somewhere and have very strong feelings toward that land and area. Therefore, I was able to learn about the different events that happened during the colonization of different first nations, and recognize my feelings of land that is being colonized outside of Canada.

Land Acknowledgements

Tarek Diabmarzouk

a) What are your feelings towards land acknowledgements? Is there a specific article we read or video we watched that resonated with you? How could land acknowledgements be made better?

Land acknowledgements are needed to be able to work towards reconciliation and revealing the true history of Canada. Ever since I was in the fifth grade, land acknowledgements have been recited, but I’ve never really understood the true meaning until this week. Now that I’ve been able to study why and when we do come together to say a land acknowledgement, I have some mixed feelings about them. Reading the articles from class, I was able to connect with them and understand why some people feel that land acknowledgements are great, and some think the exact opposite. I believe that it is a great method to work towards decolonization in Canada, however, I also believe that these acknowledgements should not only have words to it, but actions. For example, all schools in British Columbia come together and say land acknowledgement at their assemblies. They are taking action towards it by getting students to take a class where they learn about the first peoples to be able to graduate. Words can move people in different types of ways, however getting a group of people to learn more about what the words really mean, especially young people is in my opinion one of the best ways to work towards reconciliation.

b) What did you learn about local Indigenous communities this week?

This week in class, we were able to learn more about local Indigenous communities. One thing that I found interesting was how many Indigenous communities, especially the downtown east-hastings side are still being stereotyped and discriminated against. Many people look past the actual human being and go straight to the data or rumours they have heard of what’s happening in these communities. A very big example of this that I learned in class is the news and media. When I take a look at the news or media, it tends to take headlines about Indigenous people dealing drugs, being alcoholics and more, however, they never include the different ways many Indigenous people have learned to cope throughout their intergenerational trauma. Many Indigenous people have created amazing things, for example, Indigenous people have created a diverse group of items that differentiate from birth control to genetically modified crops, but you never see that in the media. These are the people who have come before us and have a better understanding of this land than settlers do and yet they are still discriminated against and stereotyped. This would have never happened if the Canadian government hadn’t put so many Indigenous people in residential schools, involved them in the sixties scoop and so many more examples I cannot list. Therefore, the biggest thing that I noticed and learned this week was that settlers are still stereotyping Indigenous people, but to work towards decolonization, we must learn that this is the effect of what the settlers have done, not Indigenous people.

Circle Talks 

Tarek Diabmarzouk

a. Why do we engage in circle talk? How could circle talk help create a sense of community?

Every person has ideas, emotions, and the knowledge to learn more about a subject. Circle talks help ease this concept of talking to everyone and allow for everyone in a group to communicate about whatever may be discussed. Everything said in the circle must stay within the circle and not leave it, making everyone more comfortable sharing their ideas. There tends to be a feeling sometimes that one’s idea may be stupid or dumb, however, the circle talk works to ease or erase this idea. Since people will start to get comfortable in circle talks it will create a sense of community especially once people share stuff that may be uncomfortable for them to do.

b. What does listening look like? Why is it important to respectfully listen to others during circle talk? How does it feel to be listened to and understood by others?

The ability to be respectful and silent is a simplified definition of listening. To listen it means that you are paying attention and giving respect to the person who is speaking. Everyone is at a different level while speaking publicly or even speaking in front of a few people that they don’t know. When people are not listening or being disrespectful to the speaker, it can be hard for them to share their ideas and make them feel disrespected. It is important to respectfully listen to others during a circle talk so that you can expect the same back and make others feel comfortable while sharing. To be listened and understood by others make you feel respected and that you are not wasting your time with a group that does not care for what you may be speaking about.

c. How did you feel after circle talk? What did you remember, and what did you take away? Remember not to speak another person’s story.

As a person who has contributed to a diverse amount of circle talks, there is many feelings that one can feel. For this specific circle talk we completed as a class, I felt curious and interested to learn more about others. I remember that we went over our names and had a topic to discuss, however I do not remember what we particularly discussed about. Learning everyones name and how they act in a group environment was interesting. I was able to know more about my classmates and my teacher by just observing everyone in the circle talk.