In partnership with the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada and British Columbia’s Representative for Children and Youth, the UBC Faculty of Education presents the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture and the Janusz Korczak Medal and Statuette for Children’s Rights Advocacy Awards Ceremony.
Reconciling History
Colonialism entrenched inequality as a lived reality for many Indigenous peoples around the world. This presentation talks about what colonialism is, how it birthed multi-generational inequality and what can be done, including academically, to achieve justice in change-resistant environments.
Event Description
The Faculty of Education is pleased to partner with the Janusz Korczak Associationof Canada (JKAC) in presenting the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture. The distinguished lecture series highlights the ongoing work of those who seek to advance children’s rights in Canada and is presented in partnership with the JKAC as a way of continuing the legacy of Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish doctor and educator, who in 1942 perished in Treblinka along with nearly 200 orphans in his care.
Following the Distinguished Lecture, Directors of the JKAC presented the Janusz Korczak Scholarship in Children’s Rights and Indigenous Education, Janusz Korczak Association of Canada Statuette, and the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada Medal.
Host
Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem, UBC Faculty of Education
Distinguished Speaker
Dr. Cindy Blackstock
Dr. Blackstock is a member of the Gitksan First Nation with over 25 years of social work experience in child protection and Indigenous children’s rights. Her research interests are Indigenous theory and the identification and remediation of structural inequalities affecting Indigenous children, youth and families.
An author of over 50 publications and a widely sought after public speaker, Dr. Blackstock has collaborated with other Indigenous leaders to assist the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in the development and adoption of a General Comment on the Rights of Indigenous children. Recently, she also worked with Indigenous youth, UNICEF and the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to produce a youth-friendly version of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Her promotion of culturally-based and evidence-informed solutions has been recognized by the Nobel Women’s Initiative, the Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, Frontline Defenders and many others.
Dr. Blackstock is the 2017 recipient of the Janusz Korczak Medal.
Featuring
Her Honour, The Honourable Janet Austin, OBC, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
Honourable Steven Lewis Point, OBC (xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl)
Ms. Lillian Boraks Nemetz, Board Member, The Janusz Korczak Association of Canada
Dr. Anton Grunfeld, Board Member, The Janusz Korczak Association of Canada
Mr. Jerry Nussbaum, President, The Janusz Korczak Association of Canada
Dr. Jennifer Charlesworth, Representative for Children and Youth, British Columbia
Dr. Chris Loock, Board Member, The Janusz Korczak Association of Canada
Recording
RECORDING: Dean’s Distinguished Lecture: Reconciling History
Please visit the event page to watch the recording of this event.
JKAC Scholarship Recipient
Janusz Korczak Association of Canada Graduate Scholarship in Children’s Rights and Canadian Indigenous Education for 2021/22 was awarded to Asma Afreen.
Asma Afreen is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC. Her research addresses identity, multilingualism, and multimodality, with a focus on Bangla heritage language learning. She is a Global Storybooks team member and helped develop Storybooks Bangladesh, a free online literacy resource for learners of Bangla. Her work has been published in The Globe & Mail.
Statuette Recipient
Dr. Blye Frank
Dr. Blye Frank served as Dean of the UBC Faculty of Education for ten years. I can hardly say enough about Blye’s leadership and the many things that he achieved during his decade as dean. Under his leadership, the Faculty of Education’s ranking rose to tenth in the world. He oversaw the establishment of numerous endowed chairs and professorships, including six Canada Research Chairs and one CIHR chair, accompanied by large gains in research funding awarded to the Faculty. Blye was not all about the big flashy awards and rankings, however. From the first moment, he spoke about and acted upon his commitment to equity, prioritizing new hires and senior leadership appointments from equity deserving groups. I am particularly grateful for Blye’s championing the area of Indigenous education, with the result that we now have two Indigenous Canada Research Chairs, nine Indigenous faculty members, numerous Indigenous graduate students and teacher education students, along with thriving programs serving both these groups.
Medal Recipient
Madam Justice Ardith Walkem
Justice Ardith (Walpetko We’dalks) Walkem, Q.C., grew up in Spences Bridge, B.C., and is a member of the Nlaka’pamux Nation. After completing a B.A. in Political Science and Women’s Studies at McGill, she attended law school at the University of British Columbia. She also earned a Master of Laws degree from UBC with a research focus on Indigenous laws.
Madam Justice Walkem articled at Mandell Pinder and McDonald and Associates. Practising with Cedar and Sage Law, she has worked extensively with Indigenous communities and organizations to support them in asserting their Aboriginal Title Rights and Treaty Rights. She is a mediator who also works within Indigenous dispute-resolution mechanisms. Her work has focused on the rights of children. She authored “Wrapping Our Ways Around Them: Indigenous Communities Child Welfare” (for the ShchEma-mee.tkt project) to support Indigenous communities in implementing their own child welfare laws or to work within existing child welfare regimes and to educate the legal community on how to work effectively with Indigenous peoples.
Access to justice has been a focus of Justice Walkem’s practice, and she has worked with organizations such as the Legal Services Society (Legal Aid B.C.), the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, and the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal (authoring “Expanding Our Vision: Cultural Equality & Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights”). She co-chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC) advisory committee of the Law Society of B.C. and sat on the Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia’s TRC advisory committee, with the aim of encouraging reconciliation and understanding.
Justice Walkem lives in Chilliwack with her wife, Halie, and their two daughters, Sophia and Hannah.
