Manifesting Resistance was a four-day participatory media creation workshop organized by Trent University and Simon Fraser University. Artists, scholars and activists from across “the Americas” were brought together to begin a conversation about intergenerational memory work, resistance, and creative archive-making.

Research Objective

Manifesting Resistance: Conversations about Intergenerational Memory Work across “the Americas” was a workshop about memory and resistance carried out in Nogojiwanong (Peterborough, Ontario) over the course of a week in early 2018. Artists, mothers, scholars, weavers, writers were invited to Trent University from across Turtle Island (North America) and beyond to document different approaches to creating intergenerational memory work, resistance and creative archive-making. Through co-creation, our research objective was to extend conceptions of activism, archiving and ageing – and the intersections of these.

Approach

We employed a participatory media creation methodology throughout the workshop. Eleven participants were invited to share their personal stories as part of the collaborative workshop that involved working in smaller groups to interview, record and photograph each other, to share in a series of circle conversations, and ultimately to co-create a collection of short media capsules about their memory projects. In addition, participants reflected on the workshop process through written, aural and visual data collected. In my capacity as a Research Assistant, I was a facilitator of the small group workshops and designed the symposium’s program guide.

Outcomes

We reduced technical barriers for storytellers by teaching and assisting the documentation of the experience using cameras and recorders. We further attempted to democratize and decolonize knowledge from academic institutions to wider publics through the final media capsules. The media capsule videos about each participant’s memory work can now be found on the symposium’s website.