We are related, we are kin.
But what does it mean to be good kin?
And what do we do with unwanted kin?
What do we do with those ancestors we would rather not claim?
Join Patty Krawec, speaker and author of Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future on a weekend retreat that explores the relationship and responsibilities we have to ourselves, our families, and to one another. This intimate gathering is intentionally hosted at a venue that allows ample time for contemplation and connection to land via walking trails and water views. Based on Patty Krawec’s newly released book we will consider:
Who claims me? Can we reimagine the relationships we have inherited?
How do we take up our responsibilities to each other?
“I gained a deeper understanding of Indigenous Peoples, their complex histories and entrenched struggles related to colonialization. This weekend helped me to examine key interconnected concerns for Indigenous Peoples in Canada including prejudice, health issues, inadequate housing, and higher rates of suicide and addictions. Providing a safe place to learn under the direction of an Indigenous educator within nature provided an enriched opportunity to learn and discuss these systemic issues.”
P. Shea, Participant October 2022 Retreat
Retreat Guests
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Patty Krawec
Patty Krawec is an Anishnaabe Ukrainian writer from Lac Seul First Nation.
Becoming Kin is her first book. You can find more of her writing at Aambe on Substack.
Patty’s work has been published in Sojourners and Canadian Living. She is active with the Fort Erie Native Friendship Center and the Strong Water Singers.
Patty is co-host of the podcast Medicine for the Resistance and she has been featured in many interviews recently, most notably with CBC Tapestry’s Mary Hynes.
Patty is cofounder of the Nii’kinaaganaa Foundation, which collects funds and disperses them to Indigenous people and organizations.
Find Patty on socials:
Website | daanis.ca
Twitter | @gindaanis
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Sharmeen Khan
Sharmeen Khan has been a trainer and facilitator for activists and social movements for 25 years. She was born and began feminist and anti-racist organizing in Regina, Saskatchewan and Victoria/Vancouver BC.Sharmeen began training in direct action, media skills and anti-oppression in the late 90s and has continued to offer training for activists all over North American and Europe.
Sharmeen has been trained through the Philadelphia based Training for Change and was a fellow with the Judith C. Jones Fellowship for Trainers of Color.
She has developed and led trainings in a variety of topics around anti-oppression as well as financial management, media training and development and facilitation workshops.
She has lived in Toronto, Ontario since 2005 and is also an organizer with No One Is Illegal-Toronto and a founding editor with the social movement journal, Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action.Sharmeen currently works as the Financial Coordinator at CUPE 3903 and supports a variety of nonprofits and activist groups in bookkeeping.She is also a sucker for bad pop culture and likes horror movies.Find Sharmeen on socials:Twitter | @colonizedmutant
Insta | @sharmeenkhan
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Alexis Shotwell
Alexis lives, teaches, and writes on unceded Algonquin land, currently Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Alexis is a Professor in Carleton University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, where she is cross-appointed with the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies and the Department of Philosophy.Alexis works in social and political theory, with a current focus on complicity and complexity as a ground for ethical and political action.
Recently completing five years of interviews on the history of AIDS activism in the Canadian context, Alexis is currently writing about the idea of white people “claiming bad kin” or “collecting our people,” what Ursula Le Guin’s work offers to our understandings of freedom and mutual aid, and craft as a practice of politics.
Website: https://alexisshotwell.com/
Sharmeen Khan has been a trainer and facilitator for activists and social movements for 25 years. She was born and began feminist and anti-racist organizing in Regina, Saskatchewan and Victoria/Vancouver BC.
Alexis lives, teaches, and writes on unceded Algonquin land, currently Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Alexis is a Professor in Carleton University’s