UBC librarians are embarking on a new collaborative research project that aims to address a fundamental problem in how open educational practices approach Indigenous Knowledges, and instead replicate colonial concepts of ownership and knowledge transfer.
The research project, titled Foregrounding Indigenous Perspectives: Community and Collaborator Affinities and Conflicts in Open Education, was recently awarded a grant by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL). The Practicing Librarian Grant, awarded by CARL’s Strengthening Capacity Committee, supports Canadian research in the field of academic librarianship for projects that use structured, evidence-based research to tackle real-world issues.
“I’ve been a part of a number of provincial and national open education committees and working groups, and there is always a struggle when discussions about Indigenous communities’ interest and engagement in open education arises,” says Erin Fields, principal investigator and Open Education and Scholarly Communications Librarian at UBC Library. “My hope for this project is to have some sense of how we can engage in open education practices that are grounded in research on Indigenous perspectives. This will be able to unearth our gaps in understanding and balance our advocacy efforts with research-informed practice.”
The project group includes co-investigators from UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses as well as Toronto Metropolitan University and BCcampus. Together, the group will identify gaps in the open education communities’ understanding of Indigenous perspectives through surveys of OER creators and interviews with Canadian Indigenous faculty, academic educators, librarians and others involved in the creation of OER and OER initiatives at various universities and colleges.
“From our findings, we will be able to provide suggestions for people working within open education on how they can engage respectfully with Indigenous communities and Knowledge Keepers and, in doing so, we can help to eliminate the colonial violence being done to Indigenous communities within open education and the broader field of education,” says Donna Langille, Community Engagement and Open Education Librarian at UBCO Library.
“There are a lot of complexities in regards to Indigenous Knowledges and how they are shared, so it’s great to have a group of advocates who can come together to begin to address the concerns that many communities have, while thinking more within a national scope,” says Kayla Lar-Son, Indigenous Programs and Services Librarian at Xwi7xwa Library. “This grant allows us to support Indigenous communities in an area where they are often forgotten and in a way that makes sense with their own protocols and uplifts their voices.”
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to engage with communities.
Women, Life, Freedom provides a glimpse into the historical movements leading up to today’s protests in Iran. From the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the subsequent introduction of the morality police, to the death of Jina (Mahsa) Amini, learn about the human rights concerns and the culture of resistance that have put Iranian women at the forefront of the protests. Made possible through the contributions of UBC students and employees.
The display is located on the Asian Library upper floor and ground floor from now until February 7, 2023.
Librarians at Asian Library have compiled recommendations for you to read while you relax during the upcoming winter holiday break. You are welcome to visit the Asian Library and check them out.
The pace of life is sometimes too fast to recall how we want to live our lives. Wang Zengqi has experienced the flood of the times, but still lives with grace and ease. He was obsessed with having fun and eating, but people said he was a funny old man. Most of the things in the world are not as they should be, so why not face life head on, get involved, listen to the stories of the grass, the wood, the insects and the fish, taste tea and one’s meals, feel everyday life, in order to understand the recklessness of life in the world.
This book chronicles director Wu Nian-zhen’s life after experiencing the storms and the greatest lows of his life. He writes about the family he misses the most, the hometown he misses day and night, the friends he has fought for his whole life, and the most real touches in every corner of Taiwan. These people and events, through his heartfelt words, live so vividly in front of you and me, laughing and crying at the same time. It is a beautiful microcosm of this era that is burned in our hearts.
In Daiōika wa shiranai de shō [The giant squid does not know], two amazing writers learn to compose waka poems by carrying out regular utakai [poetry reading party] get-togethers for a year and a half. One of the authors, Nishi Kanako, visited UBC this past year, and you may already have enjoyed her essays and novels. As Nishi is joined by others in this book, the tremendous joy you receive when you read her prose is doubled and tripled as you read her interactions with others in this book. A wonderful read to involve all your senses — you will smile, cry, and laugh as you observe the process and appreciate the creations.
The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) is perhaps the best known of all the Japanese literary classics, written by Lady Murasaki (Murasaki Shikibu) in the early 11th century. Since the Edo period (1603-1868) there has been a massive number of contemporary translations, adaptations, and parodies created of this work. A 2016 reworking, Iine! Hikaru Genji kun [Like! for Hikaru Genji] is a delightful manga series in which the handsome but quirky Heian aristocrat inadvertently time-travels to the present-day Tokyo. As he encounters the delights Tokyo offers (female roommates, smart phones, specialty coffee drinks), he composes one waka poem after another as the spirit moves him. There is a TV adaptation of this manga by Japan’s national broadcaster, NHK.
Call number: ND1069 C54 A4 2019
Book title: 그날들 이 참 좋았습니다 : 따뜻한 아랫목 같은 기억들
Author/Illustrator: 초록담쟁이 그리고 쓰다
Nostalgia for an idealized childhood in the countryside. A little girl with braided pigtails and her black cat live through four seasons together. The author/illustrator draws heartwarming moments from their life in rural Korea in pastel colored pencils, accompanied by short paragraphs of text. It is the perfect coffee table book; you can flip though it casually, read bits of it out of order, or spend a whole afternoon on reading it through. This one is soft and fuzzy.
Call number: PL994.38 C44 S27
Book title: 살인자 의 쇼핑 목록
Author: 강 지영 소설
A collection of seven short stories that focus on a moment of splintering truth. In the titular story, “The Murderer’s Shopping List,” your friendly neighborhood cashier is the protagonist. Their hobby is to deduce the lives of customers from their items of purchase: the slender young lady who buys the same amount of nipple patches, cabbage and chicken breasts every week, is she a model or a sex worker? The well-to-do lady who bought candles, fish and yakkwa, she must be preparing for a chesa tonight, etc. When the cashier sees a news report of a murder which could have been committed with items bought by a customer, they are intrigued…살인자의 쇼핑목록 has also been made into a tv drama series and a webtoon. This one is bright and sharp.
Call Number: PK2098.32.A82 H57 2017
Book title: Hīrā pherī हीरा फेरी
Author: Surendra Mohana Pāṭhaka
Language: Hindi
Taxi driver Jeet Singh is cruising for fare when a man being tailed by a bunch of goons blocks his way. Entrusting him with a briefcase full of secret, classified government documents to be delivered in lieu of a huge sum to a girl in Jogeshwari, he jumps off the moving taxi. His dead body is found by the railway track in a Mumbai suburb the next morning, while Jeet Singh finds he has nobody to give the briefcase to – the girl died mysteriously the previous night. He opens the briefcase, and discovers diamonds worth millions….
The word Pinjar (Piñjara) means skeleton. It has no shape, no appearance, no mind, no will, just skeleton. ‘Pinjar’ is the story of India of the post-independence era. That part, which became Pakistan after being cut off from India. In the cage, there is pain of the woman, there is anger, there is sacrifice, and there is motherhood. At the same time, there are crimes of men and also repentance. There are Hindus, there are Muslims. The bite of division. Standing against bigotry are human values, and after finally accepting the reality of the present, the heroine of the novel forgives all the sins and rises again, with infinite possibilities for the future.
The year 2022 marks the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. In the last ten years, it has become a place filled with more and more rebellious voices. Whether you are researching Hong Kong’s political and social changes, or whether you are just curious about what has been happening in this past quarter century, we invite you to visit the Asian Library and browse the Hong Kong books we have recently acquired. These Chinese titles are typically found in the call number sections DS796 H757, HN752.5 and JQ1539.5.
Below are some of our highlights:
B29 Z5683 2017a
小王子的領悟 = Notes philosophiques sur le petit prince
周保松 著 ; 區華欣 繪
新北市 : 大家出版, 2017
HN747.5 H426 2019
為什麼要佔領街頭? : 從太陽花, 雨傘, 到反送中運動 = Taking to the streets does not mean that demonstrators think they can realize the movement goals, but rather that they are afraid of losing something more important
何明修 著
新北市 : 左岸文化 : 遠足文化事業股份有限公司, 2019