Highlight Reel
- We cancelled our biggest event, the Festival of Learning 🙁 We had to, of course; there was no other move. And while I’m relieved to be out of uncertainty about it, I’m sorry about ALL the preparation, planning and thoughtful work done by BCcampus teams, keynote speakers, presenters, program committee, our partners at the Disabilities Resource Network of BC, and on and on it goes. It’s weird that the theme was Disruption and Transformation, because that’s for sure still in play. It’s a LOT of work to un-do…hoping for creative destruction in a good way.
- Land Acknowledgement Workshop: Before things went full-pandemic this week, we had a workshop for 15 BCcampus staff about creating a personal land acknowledgment. It was a powerful, emotional, important learning day led by Becca Shortt (who is on my team) and Alicia Hibbert, from UBC. Rather than fail to do it justice in a bullet-point, I’ll say I had a lot of “a-ha” moments about how and why it’s important for me to start using a land acknowledgement that is more personal, and of my own making. If you have been using a script provided by an employer, or a venue, for example, I recommend this workshop as a continuation and opportunity to build on that practice. For me it felt like another small but important step on my learning and decolonizing journey.
- And then just general virus-related hyper-vigilance, concern, conversation, and wtf-ing took up most of the rest of the week…it’s not great right now. I had a fun text thread with some colleagues about possibilities for creative survival strategies we can do at home and share online. I know we will get each other through this, and we’re GREAT at all the “pivot” stuff: working at home, working online, using a variety of tech, etc, etc – it’s what we’ve done for 15 years. But still…
Media Consumed
- CANADALAND Podcasts: I have gone CANADALAND-podcast-mad lately. I had a lot of catching up to do, so I listened until my ears bled this week on CANADALAND, Commons (varied themes like Corruption, Oil, and Dynasties in Canada, Thunder Bay (interesting and dark), and Cool Mules (cocaine smuggling inside Vice media). All worth a listen.
- Other podcasts: Ear Hustle (is back yay! Radiotopia show with hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods and others from inside San Quentin Prison), and Dear HBR (think audio “Dear Abby” type advice column for managers).
- 10% Happier app is one I use regularly for meditation and they offer some free content, including free access to the app for healthcare workers right now (see also coronavirus survival guide for all) One suggestion I like from one of the talks is to add a mindfulness practice in a during hand washing (e.g., ground yourself by naming “5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear..”, etc, or a quick lovingkindness mediation directed at self and/or others).