Songs of Existence: Sons of Freedom Doukhobors Within Time

Description

The aspiration of this work was a call for justice for the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors - past, present and future. Sharing a Sons of Freedom identity, I worked within heritage; a heritage with deep cultural and spiritual roots that has encountered and responded to injustices through resistance and eventual assimilation into Canadian society. Justice as the primary motivation of this study is contingent upon hospitality or in the same breath deconstruction, derived from the work of Jacques Derrida and John Caputo.
Hospitality is the theoretical, ethical and methodological pulse of this study and made possible a collective re-contextualizing of identity. Hospitality is an open and excessive welcome principled upon unconditional inclusion yet faced with an inevitable interplay of exclusion in all inclusion. The parameters of this study situated within the context of a Sons of Freedom heritage determined the welcome - although broad - was also specific and conditional.
Working within an ethic of hospitality involved working with others in co-created relational spaces. Being in shared spaces generated memories, stories, songs and perspectives impassioned by sadness, anger, hope, ideas and intentions to sustain and keep identity on the move. The role of researcher and participant, or host and guest, was often disrupted as the roles became interchangeable. The blurred roles fostered spaces of sharing, trust, care and a sense of togetherness that “We are in this together.” Walking-alongside became a creative site for mobilizing counter narratives and critical interpretations to re-represent identity and on-going becoming. Justice, key to deconstruction and to this study, opened up the possibility of claiming identity as opposed to escaping or being burdened with an identity laden with stigma and shame. / Graduate / 0344 / 0998 / [e-mail]

Links & Downloads

1. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/5108
2. Berikoff, A., Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. (2008). The Politics of Difference and Diversity: From young children’s violence to creative power expressions. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 9 (3)
3. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Berikoff, A., Elliot, E., & Tucker, A. (2007). Anti-Racism and Postcolonialism in Early Childhood Education. The Early Childhood Educator, Summer.
4. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Elliot, E., & Berikoff, A. (2007). Meaning making with early childhood education: Reflections and beyond. Interaction.
5. Berikoff, A. (2006). Inside memory: A story of living in the past and present of a social and cultural movement. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(6).
6. Berikoff, A., & Nazaroff, S. (1999). Joyous children: A teacher’s resource book. Castlegar, BC: West Kootenay Early Childhood Edcuation Diversity Group.
7. Berikoff, A., & Nazaroff, S. (1999). Joyous Children [CD]. Castlegar, BC: West Kootenay ECE Diversity Group.
8. Bellefeuille, G., McGrath, J., Berikoff, A., & Thompson, B. (2012). A Creative Arts Approach in Teaching and Learning: A Vehicle to Promote Critical Child and Youth Care Praxis. In G. Bellefeuille, D. Jamieson & F. Ricks (Eds.), Standing on the Precipice, 2nd Ed (pp. ) Edmonton: MacEwan Press.

Tags

Deconstruction

Hospitality

Reclamation of identity

Marginalization

Heritage

Additional Fields

Identifer	oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/5108
Date	23 December 2013
Creators	Berikoff, Ahna
Contributors	Hoskins, Marie L.
Source Sets	University of Victoria
Language	English, English
Detected Language	English
Type	Thesis
Rights	Available to the World Wide Web