Experiment in Ethical Listening #1

• Main Author: Biso, Derrick C
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarship at UWindsor 2020
• Subjects: Canada; inuit; Metis
• Online Access: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/uwilldiscover/2020/online/48; https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/context/uwilldiscover/article/1657/type/native/viewcontent/Screen_Shot_2020_02_04_at_6.51.10_PM_1.png

I propose to curate and share artistic work that I developed through a research project during the winter semester of 2019 in PHIL2800: Indigenous Thought of the Americas. The work was inspired by my growing awareness of the housing crisis and ongoing Indigenous struggles against the various forms of genocide being enacted by the Canadian state both at ‘home’ and abroad. The aim being to help other settlers learn the real colonial history of Canada, the current material situation, and encourage us towards being better treaty people. Inspired by experimental learning installations, I developed an experiment in spatial relation, ethical listening, and representation of statistics to explore a material reality that I found difficult to comprehend and appreciate. I played a CBC report, “This family of five lives in a laundry room, a sign of Nunavut's housing crisis” and projected images of the family in the laundry room on the wall. I used tape to mark the floor with the dimensions of the laundry room and confined myself to that space for the duration of the report. I propose to remake the original experiment for participants to experience, inviting them to listen to the report and confine themselves to the space for the duration. This experience aims to enrich the understanding of participants of the ongoing colonial violence and struggle of First Nation, Metis, and Inuit communities and to foster relations based in understanding and respect and promote solidarity and mutual aid, helping to building viable, healthy, and safe communities for everyone.