07 July
2017

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE QNW-UQAM Summer School: Female Indigenous Governance in Québec

Québec Native Women, in collaboration with the Faculté de science politique et de droit de l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and the Services aux collectivités de l’UQAM, will offer an intensive course geared toward Indigenous female leaders from July 31 to August 11, 2017. A similar course, but for an anglophone clientele, will be offered in the summer of 2018.

Title: FPD1200: Female Indigenous Governance in Québec

Course Dates: from July 31 to August 11, 2017

Registration date: before July 7, 2017

Number of spaces: 15 spaces available

Location: Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal

Number of hours: 45 hours. Number of credits: 3 credits

Fees: Registration, transportation and subsistence fees will apply. However, please note that accommodation is provided.

To register, find out about the fees and financing possibilities, or for any questions, please contact us by email at ecole.ete.faq.uqam@gmail.com.

*Attention, a letter of intent, explaining your motivation to participate in this Summer School will be required.

Summer School Format (see course description in the Appendix)

The objective of the Summer School, in the form of a 3-credit course, is to develop the various aspects of female leadership and to equip female Indigenous leaders so that they can occupy a greater place in the various Indigenous political structures.

Given by an Indigenous woman, the Summer School will include practical workshops, exchanges and presentations by guest speakers. Some cultural activities will also be organized simultaneously.

Who is the Summer School for?

The course is open to Indigenous women, to women elected as representatives of a band council and Nation Representatives within Québec Native Women.

To register for the course, women must have a college diploma OR be 21 years of age and possess experience related to the course.

History of this collaboration

This is not the first collaboration for Québec Native Women and the Faculté de science politique et de droit, since they had already collaborated in the development of the course POL4105 – Femmes autochtones au Québec: défis et enjeux contemporains (Québec Native Women: Contemporary Challenges and Issues) offered to UQAM political science students. As a result of the success of this collaboration, it seemed essential to offer a similar course, but adapted to the needs of Indigenous women in order to open the doors to higher education to them. Furthermore, in order for the course to be culturally relevant for Indigenous women, it will be given by an Indigenous teacher.

Desired Benefits

This course will not only have a beneficial effect on the women who participate, but we hope that it will also have an echo effect on the Indigenous women that these women serve. For the first year, only 15 francophone spaces will be available[1]. This is why we are asking you to register as soon as possible.

[1]   The same course will be offered in English in the summer of 2018 at the École d’Innovation Sociale Élisabeth-Bruyère.

Description of the Summer School

Collaboration between Vivianne Michel (Québec Native Women), Cynthia Smith (Québec Native Women), Josée-Anne Riverin (Service aux collectivités) and Geneviève Pagé (Faculté de science politique et de droit)

 

Description: 

This course, the result of a partnership between the Faculté de science politique et de droit and Québec Native Women, is a practical workshop on the structures and mechanisms of Indigenous community governance from a perspective informed by the experience of Indigenous women. Its goal is to equip female community leaders through the structured transmission of knowledge, know-how and skills to support their autonomous actions and the negotiation of their place in the governance of their community.

The horizontal learning structure is made up of the historical and political study of relevant contemporary and traditional modes of governance, as well as colonial and neo/postcolonial legislative and institutional structures having contributed to structuring governance in the communities. On this basis, the objective of this course is, first, a more specific deepening, based on experience, of the issues and problems related to the place that women occupy in the political organization of the community, as well as the impact of the actual governance structures on their living conditions. Through the gathering of experiences and the reappropriation of relevant theoretical and critical vocabularies (namely feminist and anticolonial), it aims for the collective development of innovative solutions, adapted to the specific realities of the various communities. Finally, the course aims for the creation of a thought and exchange laboratory in order to produce shared community and intercommunity knowledge on the political, economic, social and cultural governance structures which define the particular situation of Indigenous women, as well as their resistance strategies and tactics. The course format based on the structural link between the objective and the horizontal learning structure, favours the facilitation of discussion groups to promote the gathering of the knowledge and experience of female Indigenous leaders.

Learning objectives:

  • Develop and deepen an Indigenous perspective of female leadership and governance based on the experience of Indigenous women
  • Explore and understand the impacts of the government of Canada’s assimilation policies and legislation, of the provincial programmes and traditional and contemporary Indigenous political structures on the place and the role of women in the governance of the communities
  • Explore and analyze the experience of obstacles and opportunities in the participation of Indigenous women in the social and political life in their community and beyond
  • Analyse and understand the systemic difficulties faced by Indigenous women in their various life spheres, as well as the best practices to address them
  • Identify and analyze the place of female leadership in some resistance battles and initiatives led by Indigenous women in Québec in order to improve their environment and their community
  • Become familiarized with the place of women in their governance structures throughout time and in the different communities and Nations;
  • Explore the feminist, anticolonial, postcolonial and intersectional analysis structures and identify their strengths and limits in the issues affecting the governance of Indigenous women in Québec
  • Equip Indigenous women in their leadership role through the gathering of experience and the transmission of relevant theoretical and critical vocabularies in the experience of Indigenous women.

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