{"id":2175,"date":"2023-12-11T17:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T22:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingplace\/?post_type=front-matter&p=2175"},"modified":"2025-08-15T16:56:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:56:48","slug":"positionality-statement","status":"publish","type":"front-matter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/writingplace\/front-matter\/positionality-statement\/","title":{"raw":"Positionality Statement","rendered":"Positionality Statement"},"content":{"raw":"\"Sailboats<\/a>\r\n\r\nI live and work next to the Pacific ocean as an uninvited guest on the traditional unceded lands of the Musqueam people. I was born next to the Atlantic ocean on Mik\u2019maq territory, but grew up at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers on Treaty One territory, and on the banks of the Fraser River on the traditional unceded lands of the Sem\u00e1:th (Sumas) Nation. I am a white settler of English, Irish, German, and Dutch descent. Boats and a deep relationship to water run throughout my family history\u2014seal boat captains, fishermen, sailors and swimmers. My mother taught me from a young age that water is home.\r\n\r\nI grew up on a hill just above a reserve and went to school with kids from the Sem\u00e1:th (Sumas) Nation. At school, we helped carve a totem pole and learned traditional weaving techniques on \u201cSto:Lo\u201d day, but we never learned about genocide and the history of residential schools. I later learned that the only recorded lynching to take place in Canada happened in the late 1800\u2019s to a Sto:Lo boy just down the street from my home, right around \u201cWonderland,\u201d the mini golf course. I have worked so hard to put distance between myself and the place I grew up\u2014it\u2019s difficult to reckon with this story. What it means about the past, the privilege of my childhood, the active suppression of history.\r\n\r\nAs a teacher of writing, I am keenly aware of the importance of multiple stories. My first language is English but I have learned to speak fluently in other languages, uncovering different parts of myself, involuntarily hiding others. I come to my discipline as both an insider and an outsider\u2014I am trained in my field, but identify more as a teacher and a writer\/artist, less as an academic. I have spent years leading communications for grassroots humanitarian and non-governmental organizations\u2014wielding words to drive change. I have also spent decades unlearning the harmful words of racism, misogyny, colonization, and homophobia that were communicated to me throughout my childhood in churches and classrooms. As a teacher, I try to hold both of these things to be true: that language can be harmful, and it can also be transformative.","rendered":"

\"Sailboats<\/a><\/p>\n

I live and work next to the Pacific ocean as an uninvited guest on the traditional unceded lands of the Musqueam people. I was born next to the Atlantic ocean on Mik\u2019maq territory, but grew up at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers on Treaty One territory, and on the banks of the Fraser River on the traditional unceded lands of the Sem\u00e1:th (Sumas) Nation. I am a white settler of English, Irish, German, and Dutch descent. Boats and a deep relationship to water run throughout my family history\u2014seal boat captains, fishermen, sailors and swimmers. My mother taught me from a young age that water is home.<\/p>\n

I grew up on a hill just above a reserve and went to school with kids from the Sem\u00e1:th (Sumas) Nation. At school, we helped carve a totem pole and learned traditional weaving techniques on \u201cSto:Lo\u201d day, but we never learned about genocide and the history of residential schools. I later learned that the only recorded lynching to take place in Canada happened in the late 1800\u2019s to a Sto:Lo boy just down the street from my home, right around \u201cWonderland,\u201d the mini golf course. I have worked so hard to put distance between myself and the place I grew up\u2014it\u2019s difficult to reckon with this story. What it means about the past, the privilege of my childhood, the active suppression of history.<\/p>\n

As a teacher of writing, I am keenly aware of the importance of multiple stories. My first language is English but I have learned to speak fluently in other languages, uncovering different parts of myself, involuntarily hiding others. I come to my discipline as both an insider and an outsider\u2014I am trained in my field, but identify more as a teacher and a writer\/artist, less as an academic. I have spent years leading communications for grassroots humanitarian and non-governmental organizations\u2014wielding words to drive change. I have also spent decades unlearning the harmful words of racism, misogyny, colonization, and homophobia that were communicated to me throughout my childhood in churches and classrooms. As a teacher, I try to hold both of these things to be true: that language can be harmful, and it can also be transformative.<\/p>\n

Media Attributions<\/h2>