Join the Rotary Club of Abbotsford Sumas and UFV’s Community Health and Social Innovation Hub for conversations around advancing equity in our community.

Our first speaker, Dr. Keith Thor Carlson, is presenting a talk titled Identifying and Then Transcending Settler Colonialism: Strategies for Building Genuine Reconciliation.

Not all forms of Colonialism look the same – and most colonial systems are designed to be largely invisible to those who benefit from them. Learning to identify the systems that sustain colonial power is the first step on the path to dismantling and then transcending colonialism. In this presentation Prof. Carlson will discuss the system of colonialism that was set up here in British Columbia and that continues to operate today. Using insights from several disciplines and findings from his own research he will provide attendees with information and vocabulary that can assist them in dismantling settler colonialism while they also meaningfully contribute to the twin goals of Indigenous resurgence and the building of genuine reconciliation between Indigenous and settler societies in Canada.

Entry is by donation, in support of the UFV-SUS Food Bank

Prof. Keith Thor Carlson holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous and Community-engaged History at the University of the Fraser Valley. He has additionally been appointed Director of the UFV’s Peace and Reconciliation Centre where he has recently launched the new The Xwelitem Siyaya Allyship Building Program which helps provide settlers with the knowledge and skills needed to become authentic allies of Indigenous people and to help promote genuine reconciliation. He has been working with the Stó:lō communities helping to document and interpret history and cultural traditions since 1992. His research is designed and executed collaboratively with Indigenous communities so as to best meet community-identified priorities. Individually or with partners Carlson has authored or edited 12 books and over 50 articles, including A Stó:lō-Coast Salish Historical Atlas (2001), and The Power of Place the Problem of Time: Aboriginal Identity and Historical Consciousness in the Cauldron of Colonialism (2010).