Fourth-year UFV social work student, Shonora Erickson, talks creating an anti-racism workshop, her experiences with activism
Shonora Erickson is a fourth-year social work student who created a workshop series with her fellow social work students called “Working Towards Allyship.” Erickson identifies as Anishinaabe from Sagkeeng First Nations in Manitoba and was born and raised on Stó:l? territory. She grew up in the child welfare system from the ages of 3-19 and wasn’t raised in ceremony, but is now trying to connect to her Indigenous roots. Erickson created these workshops after she went through her own process of learning and growing into her identity, and discovered that she had developed a passion for educating others on how to be anti-racist. The Cascade got a chance to talk with Shonora about her background and what led to the creation of these educational workshops.
What led you to wanting to connect with your Indigenous heritage? What resources have you used and found to be most beneficial both in the Fraser Valley and at UFV?
Before entering the social work program, I had a lot of internalized racism about myself. The social work program involves a lot of self-reflection and internal work. Last year, I took an Indigenous social work class, and it helped me realize all the ways I have been personally impacted by colonization. That was probably the start of my healing, where I began to self-identify as an Indigenous person and was proud to be Anishanaabe. I joined the drum club at UFV, and I started going to the Indigenous Student Centre, where I got advice from the elders there because I was holding on to a lot of anger. The elders advised me to go to sweats, start drumming, and to pray. I made my first drum at UFV, started going to pow-wows, and began more cultural practices.
This past summer you were asked to present on how to be an ally for the Green Party of Mission. How did they know to reach out to you?
I think it all started because I am really active on social media. I share a lot of my opinions and a lot of articles, so a lot of my friends reach out to me and thank me for sharing information. One of my friends is a member of the Green party, and they were looking for somebody to do a presentation on how to be an ally, so she recommended me to teach it.
So, you got this opportunity by being so active on social media. Can you talk a little about this process and give advice for people who want to start using their social media for activism as well?
Social media has been so huge for me. I’m friends with so many Indigenous people on social media who I’ve never even met, and that’s how I’ve sort of found my community. Some advice I would give is reposting issues to your story, participating in self-reflection, and following a more diverse group of people. If you go through your feed and all you’re seeing is white people and you’re not seeing anything about these current issues, then you need to diversify your social media to include more Black and Indigenous folks and include things that are affecting them.
Social media is also a lifeline for Black and Indigenous people, such as Joyce Echaquan, who live-streamed her death on Facebook, and that live-stream was used as evidence to fire those nurses. Social media is good for hearing the other side of people’s stories because in the mainstream media and in the news you usually just hear the side of people in power, and they’re always demonizing Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour, saying that they are dangerous and they’re hurting people and burning down buildings. But now, because of social media, we can hear the other side of stories with video evidence.
After teaching this workshop to the Green party, it led you to develop a free, accessible, educational group about racism and allyship at UFV. The Working Towards Allyship group has gone through two sessions so far, with each session holding four different workshops. The first week, you taught about how oppression was held in place in our society. Can you speak briefly on how you have seen oppression within UFV?
At UFV, there are only a few Indigenous students in the social work program, a lot of the curriculum is not from an Indigenous point of view, and the classes are mostly from a European perspective and from their own experts. This minimizes or erases Indigenous people, and I feel like I’m always the one speaking up and questioning these issues, which can be quite exhausting.
What advice would you give to people who have, for example, a racist uncle, or anyone in their life they don’t necessarily want to cut out, but they also don’t want them to continue spreading racist statements around the internet or at the dinner table?
Leading by example and having conversations with them about where they get their assumptions might lead to a better understanding of where they’re coming from. This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way; I’m a pretty fiery person and I used to get in a lot of arguments with people. I would approach these issues with an argumentative stance. Someone said to me last year that people don’t come into conversations thinking that they’re wrong about something; they think that they’re right and hold it close to their heart. People have a right to be angry that they’re only figuring it out now, and that they are being challenged on the beliefs they grew up learning. Coming from a place of understanding and empathy is better than being argumentative.
The last workshop of the session is about allyship and making plans going forward. Can you briefly speak on what people can do to become better allies after they have done the work reflecting on their own privilege?
Becoming an ally isn’t really something you can call yourself. It isn’t a title you can give yourself; it’s about actions that you participate in. I feel like the word ally carries a title, whereas being anti-racist is more of an active term. That is why our group is called “Working Towards Allyship” — because you’re always working toward it. Some things you can do to always be working toward being anti-racist and toward reconcilation are always doing internal work, reading books, talking to people and having challenging conversations, diversifying your social media, going to rallies and protests, donating money, and buying things from the BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, people of colour] community.
What is the greatest lesson you’ve learned or biggest takeaway while facilitating these workshops?
For the second session we saw a smaller attendance than we originally hoped for, and at first I was upset at this, but the people I worked with reminded me that two people is better than zero people and every person who wants to learn matters. We shouldn’t be minimizing their journey or work. Every single person does matter and passion is really infectious. They will infect other people in their lives, and one person at a time things will change and things will become safer for Black and Indigenous people to be living in this world.
How can readers get involved and join the next session?
You can follow us on our Instagram, contact us by email, or register for the next session that is starting January 2021 through our Eventbrite page.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
(Shonora Erickson)
Andrea Sadowski is working towards her BA in Global Development Studies, with a minor in anthropology and Mennonite studies. When she's not sitting in front of her computer, Andrea enjoys climbing mountains, sleeping outside, cooking delicious plant-based food, talking to animals, and dismantling the patriarchy.
