Unsettle the Future:
Re-Story, Research, & Reclaim Indigenous Sexualities & Relations
November 7-9, 2019
Symposium & Tipi Confessions Show
The University of Alberta hosted the RELAB launch symposium, Unsettle the Future: Re-Story, Research, & Reclaim Indigenous Sexualities & Relations.
Summary
The symposium featured “research-creation” presentations. That is, research and creative works that are co-constituted and infuse and inform one another. Such work is sometimes also referred to as “arts-based research.” Given the symposium theme, we wanted to hear your stories, performances, practices, or fantasies that unsettle settler-colonial presence, including visions of the future, to disrupt and queer settler attachments to linear, progressive time. We called for radical storytellers to connect a broad range of re-storying practices – performance, art, podcasting, virtual gaming, media, etc. to share how their storytelling disrupts settler narratives and envisions alternatives for reclaiming relations.
Schedule
The symposium opened Thursday evening, November 7, with a keynote lecture by Prof. Jason Edward Lewis of The Initiative for Indigenous Futures, followed by a day and a half of panels on Friday-Saturday, November 8-9. Tipi Confessions sexy storytelling and cabaret show was featured on Friday evening.
Tipi Confessions
Tipi Confessions is a live storytelling show on sex, sexuality, and gender, featuring performances and anonymous audience confessions. Our show highlights Indigenous, decolonial, political, humourous, creative, feminist, queer, and educational perspectives. We seek diverse voices, especially if stories like yours often go untold. We are an ALL-INCLUSIVE enterprise: we welcome storytellers and performers of all genders, races, sexualities, and abilities. Sexually-themed stories and performances and encouraged. Your performance doesn’t need to be “erotic” (although we love well-crafted erotica), but it should pertain positively to sex and sexuality. We want stories that fit our mission of ethics, education, and entertainment. Before the Pandemic, our shows were held 3-4 times yearly in Edmonton, across Canada, and internationally. We hope to bring this show back and look forward to featuring spoken word readings, personal narratives, memoirs, fiction, burlesque, live music, and short theatre performances. We are also open to stand-up comics, video clips, and lively short lectures.
Please submit questions to RELAB RA
Kirsten Lindquist
Email: kirstenl@ualberta.ca