Q&A with Nicole Dodd, Cindé Adgebesan and Pam Tzeng of the AB Antiracism EDU Committee
Photo from left to right: Nicole Dodd, Cindé Adgebesan and Pam Tzeng
I met Nicole through my boyfriend as they both attended the Haskayne Executive MBA program at the University of Calgary. We casually met at a few school related events before Nicole reached out to learn more about the triathlon club I was a part of, and we ended up in a group strength class together. At our last class on March 9, we were talking about the potential effects that COVID-19 might have on her upcoming wedding in Barbados and the work travel plans she had for a conference in Winnipeg. Since the last day I saw Nicole, I have been watching her Instagram feed in awe as she has taken every event in stride from having a zoom wedding, to joining the Black Lives Matter protests in Calgary and taking notable action for Black Canadian History and anti-racism curriculum to be added to Alberta Programs of Study. Her positivity, resilience and her commitment to taking the long-term actions towards change is inspiring and I wanted to learn more, so I sat down with Nicole and her cohort from AB Anti-Racism EDU to learn about what it looks like to create change at the political level.
Can you tell me a bit about yourselves and your backgrounds?
Pam: I’m a born and raised Calgarian. I use she/her pronouns and am ethnically of Chinese descent. In terms of nationality I identify as both Canadian and Taiwanese. I work as a freelance choreographer, performer, curator, producer and equity advocate. I teach therapeutic movement Gyrotonic Method and Yamuna Body Rolling. I believe that movement is a way of healing trauma internalized in the body.
Nicole: I am Caribbean Calgarian and was born and raised in Calgary. I am of mixed race as my father is white Canadian and mother is afro-Caribbean. Currently, I manage a newcomer program that helps people get their first jobs in Canada.
Cindé: I am a born and raised Calgarian of Nigerian, Bermudian and Bajan descent. I work at the University of Calgary in post graduate medical education where I am leading an anti-racism taskforce and helping residency programs change their curriculum from a traditional time-based format to one that is based on competence.
Where did you start your careers? What inspired you?
Pam: My career trajectory is a bit unconventional. As a child I aspired to be a professional dancer and visual artist, but decided not to take that path out of respect for my parents care and sacrifice in immigrating to Canada to vision of a prosperous future for my brother and I. So I went and completed a Bachelors in Biology with the aim of becoming a chiropractor who could live vicariously through my clients that would be dancers and athletes. In my final year of university I watched a contemporary dance performance that pierced my soul and set off a knowing in me that my path was to be an artist. And that’s what I’ve been doing since. My work has brought me to create and perform across Canada, Europe, Brazil and into the United States in recent years. I create performances about the politics of the body, digging into raw thematic territory around race and power. I also work as a performing arts producer, curate an experimental performance series called To The AWE, and I am a therapeutic movement educator. I advocate for racial justice and equity in all areas of my practice and ultimately I am inspired to contribute what I can to ensure people are able to embrace each other for their full humanity.
Nicole: I would say I stumbled into my career. I started working at Career Services at U of A because I was studying Human Resources in the School of Business. After that, I worked in Montreal for two 4-month University summers with employment services through their social service. It was from that experience that I decided I enjoyed working in social services and I wanted to continue helping marginalized people reach their career goals. I like the mentorship and coaching aspect of my work the most.
Cindé: I started my career in nutrition. When I was completing my bachelor’s degree I was often frustrated at the centering of white bodies and diets and the placing of racialized bodies and the substances that nourish them at the margins. This extended to the way that BMI and other health indices were formulated, to the lack of racialized subjects in nutritional studies that form the foundation of nutritional recommendations, right down to the erasure of social determinants of health. While not seeing myself or other racialized people reflected in the curriculum was deeply frustrating, it was not new. It was something that I’d had to deal with throughout my time in the educational system, beginning in kindergarten. These experiences of feeling unseen and unheard, along with the constant othering that I experienced from teachers, peers and administrators in educational spaces, prompted me to pursue a Masters of Education with a focus on social justice. I truly believe that the centering of racialized histories, knowledge, literature, math and arts in education at all levels is the only way we will be able to create an anti-racist, anti-oppressive society that is truly inclusive.
What are the overarching values that you bring to your daily life and work?
Pam: Creativity, Risk, Contribution, Justice and Tolerance are the values that lead me through life in all its complexity, joy and sorrow. I bring an embodied lens and a spirit of courage to all my work in art, teaching and community organizing which I think is very important in the current socio-political climate of today. Colonialism, Imperialism and the White Body Supremacy we are swimming in have taught White people to devalue and deny racialized peoples’ innate dignity and humanity in exchange for prosperity and dominance. The world has become so wrapped up in the idea of advancement that people forget the vital importance and intelligence of our bodies to experience empathy and capacity to heal from unconscious internalized trauma that causes people to respond reactively and in turn cause harm. Harmful beliefs and biases bleed from the individual into policy which in turn perpetuates the marginalization of communities of people that we are advocating for today.
Nicole: I would say my most important values are openness, collaboration, connecting and enthusiasm. In every part of my life I try to bring these values to the table. Whether it is openness in learning about new cultures or perspectives or collaborating with my co-committee members to achieve outcomes, I try to foster these values all the time. I also highly value connecting people with others who might share their interests or connecting people with opportunities that will help them to achieve their goals. Enthusiasm is simply the way I have chosen to interact with others. I like to bring bright, positive, enthusiastic energy to my friendships, marriage and work relationships.
Cinde: Two of my strongest values are justice and empathy. For me, both of these are founded upon constantly seeking out and listening to the stories and voices of marginalized peoples. We cannot be just if we don’t center marginalized voices and understand the ways that history; I don’t mean history as static and in the past as it’s also part of our present and shapes the future, it is fluid; effects peoples present struggles and circumstances. We cannot be empathetic without doing the same and I don’t believe that either justice nor empathy can exist without the other. This is why education as a mandate to achieving racial justice is so important to me, it involves centering racialized voices and bodies as they move through time and space, brightly illuminating their humanity and in so doing, brings us closer to a more just society (we cannot ignore the suffering and inequal treatment of those we fully see as our equals).
What was the motivation to start AB Antiracism EDU Committee?
We started the AB Anti-Racism EDU Committee because as three Calgary Board of Education (CBE) educated racialized women, we realized there were gaps in the curriculum as it related to racialized histories, knowledge, literature and arts as well as anti-racism coursework and knowledge. We believe that students need to learn more comprehensive history about Black Canadians and Albertans as well as other racialized Canadians. As Canadians we are fortunate to have such rich histories when it comes to the Indigenous peoples of this land and the other racialized groups that occupy them. By ignoring and erasing these histories and by failing to embrace the complexities that are part of the struggles and triumphs which are part of our collective histories, the educational system is doing all of our students a great disservice.
While we all had different experiences in the educational system as a result of our race, ethnicity and skin color, we all experienced racism at the hands of our peers, teachers and administrators. In experiencing this racism, we did not have the necessary tools to try and understand what was happening or to advocate for ourselves as we were not given the language to communicate to our parents, teachers, peers or administrators about these experiences. Additionally, people were quick to interpret and call negative interactions bullying when they were actually racism.
Why did you start with the Alberta curriculum?
Because creating a more inclusive, anti-racist society starts with education. In order for people to truly see and uplift the humanity of those around them they need to understand their struggles, resistance and triumphs of the communities of which they are a part. As communities all have specific histories, stories, ways of knowing, arts and knowledge, we need to be able to interact with these, in order to understand them.
The current Alberta curriculum is very broad and there is a lot of freedom given to teachers to provide supplementary lessons and to include and even center the voices of marginalized peoples, but it is not mandatory. Since our society has been founded on racism and other forms of oppression, erasing the contributions and humanity of those at the margins, we need to start to acknowledge and center different histories, perspectives and knowledges to deconstruct and counter racism and all oppression. We need to change what our children learn to create change in our society.
What does the process look like to get something like this done? How long does it typically take and how do you start?
We’ve connected with some major community leaders and advocates in Calgary who have been advocating for this type of curriculum change since the 90s. We are standing on their shoulders and they are proud of us for taking up the cause because they have encountered barrier after barrier. We do not know how long it takes, but we do know people have been talking about it since the 70s and likely even before this and not much has changed. However, we are hopeful that the most recent BLMs are a true turning point when it comes to truly committing to build an anti-racist society so we are hopeful that we will not still be advocating for this basic change in 20 years from now.
How can people help? Get involved?
Send a personalized letter to your MLA and the Education Minister. Personalized letters are the most impactful, they force the MLA and the Education Minister to respond personally.
People can also share our campaign via Instagram with their networks to boost the number of possible letters.
People can also call their MLA and tell them why they believe this change is important for Albertan society. This demonstrates to your MLA that this is a priority issue for their constituency.
What is the most memorable project you’ve worked on?
This is!
What are some of your greatest lessons you’ve learned thus far?
The first is to use major setbacks and disappointments as fuel to keep going and work harder. We have been requesting a meeting with Minister of Education since early June and she recently replied, declining to take a meeting with us. This is disappointing but it makes us want to work harder and continue to meet with other influential people in government and in other institutions to show our commitment to this change and hopefully gain a meeting with her in the future. We won’t be going away.
The second lesson is that advocacy is multi-faceted and there are many different angles to approach it. We all know about petitions and letter campaigns but there are many other ways to create change that didn’t cross my mind until we started on this advocacy journey. We have learnt about grassroots projects such as creating curriculum and then approaching individual teachers and asking to present to their classrooms. We have also learnt about collaborating with other advocacy groups with similar aims to share resources and strategies.
Who do you admire and why?
We all admire the ones who came before us, the women and men who have been having these conversations with political leaders and educators alike for decades to have racialized history and anti-racism added to the curriculum. We also admire everyone out there today fighting, in different ways and in different fields, to create a more just and equitable society for generations to come. We are immensely humbled to stand with all of them.
Do you have suggested readings, foundations or charities that you recommend supporting at this time?
Being anti-racist requires us to commit ourselves to seeking out new information and to try and be connected to the communities and peoples around us. While we could recommend books to read or organizations to support, doing your own personal research and finding books that interest you (please let them be by racialized authors) and causes that resonate with you is part of doing the work. So happy journeying.
What’s on your bookshelves?
Imperialist Canada by Todd Gordon, Inglorious Empire: what the British did to India by Shashi Tharoor, Conquest: sexual violence and American Indian genocide by Andrea Smith, and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Kathy Park Hong, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown.
Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch and Untamed by Glennon Doyle
What are your big lofty goals for your work and impact on the city and beyond?
Have comprehensive Black Canadian History (especially Black Albertan history and other racialized Canadian groups) and anti-racism curriculum added to Albertan schools at all grades and in all disciplines (not just Social Studies).
We hope the impact is that nationally Alberta’s curriculum changes ripple across the country and all provinces and territories make similar additions to their curriculum. History and representation are power. When racialized people are represented in their textbooks and curriculum, they know their presence in Canada isn’t recent or precarious. They too contributed to the building of Canadian society and they too can have an impact on its future.
What does the future hold for you and Alberta Citizens?
We recently had a fruitful meeting with the Executive Director of High School Curriculum and the Senior Manager of Social Studies Curriculum at the Government of Alberta. We hope to continue meeting with them and find out ways to actively participate in the public engagement meetings that are held during curriculum redesign process.
We are going to continue our advocacy work, creating awareness of possible curriculum additions through our Instagram posts as well as meeting with leaders in Education to make this change a reality.
Where can we find you?
Alberta citizens advocating for Black Canadian History and anti-racism curriculum to be added to Alberta Programs of Study #ABantiracismedu
https://www.instagram.com/abantiracismedu/
Alberta Citizens
Alberta citizens advocating for Black Canadian History and anti-racism curriculum to be added to Alberta Programs of Study #ABantiracismedu
https://www.instagram.com/abantiracismedu/
How can people support and help amplify your cause(s)?
Send letters, get your family and friends to send letters, get colleagues to send letters. Everybody send a letter!
Also, repost, follow, like our Instagram posts