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An invitation to gather in slow dialogue—where older stories meet new possibilities, and we imagine together how education can help us live well in uncertain times.

A monthly dialogue circle that brings Indigenous wisdom and anti-oppressive pedagogy into conversation, exploring how education can be reimagined to address systemic injustice and global uncertainty.

Join us in reciprocal dialogue to share stories, ask questions, and build compassionate spaces where we learn how to live well, together.

This interdisciplinary lecture series invites reflection on the emergence of a ‘new story’—one that remains connected to older narratives while offering fresh insights into how we might live well together. To articulate this (re)newed understanding, we need a conceptual language that can capture both continuity and possibility. By bringing together Indigenous wisdom and anti-oppressive pedagogies to explore how education can become a revitalized force in a time of global uncertainty and systemic injustice. Centering the powerful written discourse of respected nehiyaw kehte-aya, Louis Sunchild, an extraordinary contribution to Indigenous wisdom tradition, the series engages with a holistic view of the mind as a unity of mental, emotional, biological, and spiritual domains, embedded in cycles of time, relational ethics, and a deep connection to land and community.

In dialogue through a monthly series, we seek to provoke a series of critical questions, many of which will not have clear answers. This monthly series offers an opportunity to engage in slow, critical dialogue across differences, fostering a culture of inquiry and curiosity.

What does it mean to truly meet one another in thought, beyond the boundaries of language, culture, or ideology? How can classrooms, institutions, and communities become sites of mutual promise, where compassion is not only felt but enacted through structural and systemic change?

Mutual Thinking (Lightning,1992) is the practice of shared understanding that is not predicated on full agreement. The lecture series explores the dynamic intersections of Elder knowledge and anti-oppressive pedagogies through layered interpretation, critical reflection, and embodied practice. In a sharing circle, we will envision education not merely as knowledge transmission, but as a living, ongoing discourse; rooted in responsibility, reverberating with meaning, and oriented toward re-storying older narratives with fresh insights into how we might live well, together. 

As Audre Lorde said, “we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change. Without community, there is no liberation, only the most vulnerable and temporary armistice between an individual and her oppression.”

References: 

Lightning, W. C. (1992). Compassionate mind: Implications of a text written by Elder Louis Sunchild. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 19(2), 215–253.

Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. The Crossing Press.