Written Response

Think Kanata

https://think-kanata.cargo.site/

Think Kanata is an interpretation and translation of Discover Canada, the official study guide for the Canadian citizenship test. Passing a citizenship test is the second last legal step of becoming a Canadian citizen, before taking the oath of citizenship. Like many other immigrant-facing documents and publications, Discover Canada has downplayed the history and current state of Canada as a Settler country. Therefore, immigrants need to educate themselves, recognise their role as a settler and consider what it actually means to be a Canadian.

My effort starts with researching and producing an alternative understanding of this study guide, which hopefully empowers many immigrants like me to become the citizens they want to become.

Kanata

Kanata, the Huron-Iroquois word for “village” or “settlement” are likely to be the origin of the nation name, Canada. The name of the nation itself is a translation.

Testings – Custom CSS of hovering effects

Intermediate Presentation

Research and readings

The Indian Act

• https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/page-1.html
• How you could understand the Indian Act https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_indian_act/
• The orange cover of the Indian Act https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/aanc-inac/R5-158-2-1978-eng.pdf
• https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_indian_act/

Colonialism

• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/
• https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/the-case-for-colonialism/
• https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0029.xml
• https://www.academia.edu/540840/The_Contemporary_Reality_of_Canadian_Imperialism_Settler_Colonialism_and_the_Hybrid_Colonial_State

Systems of oppresssion

• https://www.yorku.ca/edu/unleading/systems-of-oppression/

Oath of citizenship

• https://senate-gro.ca/news/c8-citizenship-oath-indigenous/

Residential School

• https://nctr.ca/exhibits/residential-school-timeline/

Language Canada

• https://uclpress.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2019v34.005

Learnings

• Either communicate complex subjects with one simple method or communicate one simple idea with complex methods.
• Discipline your practice. Set constraints by choosing one method and seeing it through.
• It is important to know when you’re doing too much, such as using too many methods.
• Identify each method you adopted and ask yourself why you used these methods.
• Be conscious of the decisions you make in the process and how each decision presents alternative ways of designing and communicating

The misconception is that without deep content, design is reduced to pure style, a bag of dubious tricks. (Rock, 2009)

We seem to accept the fact that developing content is more essential than shaping it, that good content is the measure of good design. (Rock, 2009)

But that shaping itself is a profoundly affecting form. (Rock, 2009)

Stellar examples of graphic design, design that changes the way we look at the world, are often found in service of the most mundane content: an ad for ink, cigarettes, sparkplugs or machinery. (Rock, 2009)

But perhaps the content of graphic design is exactly that: an evocation of “what it feels like to be living through the present moment of civilization,” with all its “commodities, banalities and vulgarities.”…Work must be saying something, which is different than being about something. (Rock, 2009)

This deep connection to making also positions design in a modulating role between the user and the world. By manipulating form, design reshapes that essential relationship. Form is replaced by exchange. The things we make negotiate a relationship over which we have a profound control. (Rock, 2009)

References

Anderson, M. D. (2021) ‘Citizenship Act, Bill to Amend—Second Reading‘, Hansard: Debates of the Senate, 9 June, Volume 152, Issue 46. Available at: https://sencanada.ca/en/content/sen/chamber/432/debates/046db_2021-06-08-e#49 (Accessed: 12 November 2023).

Blauvelt, A., Maurer, L., Paulus, E., Puckey, J., Wouters, R.  (2013) Conditional Design Workbook. Available at: https://www.conditionaldesign.org/manifesto/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Chung, M. M. L. (2012) The Relationships Between Racialized Immigrants and Indigenous Peoples in Canada: A Literature Review (Online). Available from: https://rshare.library.torontomu.ca/articles/thesis/The_Relationships_Between_Racialized_Immigrants_and_Indigenous_Peoples_in_Canada_A_Literature_Review/14648922/1 (Accessed 12 November 2023).

Government of Canada (2020) Origin of the name “Canada”. Canada or Available at: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/origin-name-canada.html (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Rock, M. (2009) Fuck Content. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/2009/fuck-content/ (Accessed: 16 November 2023).

Sefa, D. G. J. and Kempf, A. (2006) Forward in Anti-colonialism and education: The Politics of Resistance. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. pp. ix-x. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HyupVZD5SzwC&vq=minds&source=gbs_navlinks_s (Accessed: 12 November 2023).

SMITH, A., 2010. Indigeneity, ‘Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy’, Global Dialogue (Online), 12(2), pp. 1-13. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/indigeneity-settler-colonialism-white-supremacy/docview/866741293/se-2?accountid=10342 (Accessed: 12 November 2023).

Patel, L (2015) Decolonizing Educational Research: From Ownership to Answerability, Taylor & Francis Group, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. (Accessed: 11 November 2023)