Talk by Smokii Sumac: "On Coming Home: Stories from a Two-Spirit Adoptee"

When: September 27th, 5PM
Where: Arts W-215 (accessible space)
Facebook event:https://www.facebook.com/events/2001702213453716/

In this Indigenous Awareness Week talk, Ktunaxa poet and PhD Candidate, Smokii Sumac, will share stories of his many journeys "home," as an Indigenous adoptee and two-spirit person, in ceremony, with chosen family, within his nation, and to his homelands. While stories of loss and devastation tend to forefront today's conversations on Indigenous issues, Sumac argues that we must seek out and share narratives of returning, remembering, and what Gerald Vizenor calls "survivance" in order to learn to restore and celebrate the relationships that colonization seeks to destroy: relationships with the land, our bodies, our selves, families, communities, nations, knowledges and ceremonies. With a background in Indigenous literary studies, Sumac weaves thoughtful analysis of Indigenous works such as Cherie Dimaline's the Marrow Thieves, Jeff Barnaby's Rhymes for Young Ghouls, and Linda Hogan's Solar Storms with deeply personal and moving stories of his own experiences learning what it means to come home. Smokii Sumac is a proud member of the Ktunaxa nation located in what is currently southeastern British Columbia. They are a PhD Candidate in Indigenous Studies at Trent University where their research centres on “coming home” as a Ktunaxa adoptee and two-spirit person. Smokii identifies as queer, transmasculine, two-spirit, a poet, and uncle, and auntie and a cat person. They accept he/him/his or they/them/theirs pronouns. Co-presented by the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies and Indigenous Awareness Week. Part of the IGSF year long series: “The Arts of Trans, Gender Diverse and Two-Spirit Lives”, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.