ILSA Gathering 2021

Nuna pigitjangittavut, nunattinut pigijauvugut /

La terre ne nous appartient pas. Nous appartenons à la terre. /

The land does not belong to us. We belong to the land. 

In a time when the majority of our interactions are happening in virtual spaces, ILSA seeks via its 2021 gathering to remember, affirm, and critically consider our embeddedness in particular landscapes, in diverse Indigenous territories, on land that--as Taqralik Partridge reminds us--“does not belong to us.” Instead, she asserts, “nunattinut pigijauvugut”: “We belong to the land.”*

While the conditions and extent of ‘our’ belonging to the land vary greatly across ILSA’s membership, we attend to this phrase for its centering of land as well as its curbing of colonial entitlements--particularly in a year that has been shaped by the struggles of Wet’sewet’en land defenders, by the defence of Mi’kmaq treaty rights, by #BlackLivesMatter, and by other inequalities sharpened by a global pandemic. At our 2021 virtual gathering, we aim to create opportunities to connect and collaborate virtually while also remembering where we are and to whom we are accountable. As such, we invite those who produce, publish, read, study, and teach Indigenous literatures (whether writers, scholars, publishers, and/or community members) to join us in considering the linkages between our work in Indigenous literary studies and the material realities of the lands that we inhabit and that continue to give us life.

Planned highlights of this year's gathering include:

• a keynote lecture by Billy-Ray Belcourt!
• multiple options for participation based on individual needs
• the Renate Eigenbrod mentorship virtual lunch
• ILSA-facilitated writing communities in the months leading up to the gathering
• and more to be announced soon!

*Taqralik Partridge. curved against the hull of a peterhead. PS Guelph, 2020.