Topic:What does it really mean to live in relation—with one another, with the Land, and with the responsibilities we inherit and carry forward?
with Dr. Gina Starblanket and Dr. Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik StarkDrawing from their chapter “Towards a Relational Paradigm: Knowledge, Gender, Land, and Modernity,” they explore how relationships—when lived with care and accountability—can guide transformative change in law, governance, and everyday life. Rather than offering a single roadmap or solution, Starblanket and Stark ask thoughtful questions to stimulate deeper thinking:
- How do power and knowledge shape our relationships?
- How are gendered responsibilities unevenly carried?
- What happens when land is treated as property rather than a living relation?
- And how might Indigenous teachings help us move beyond rigid divides between “tradition” and “modernity”?
This conversation is an invitation for all citizens of Turtle Island to reflect on treaties not as historical artifacts, but as ongoing relationships that call for humility, reciprocity, and action. Grounded in Indigenous political thought and lived realities, this session offers space to listen, learn, and reconsider how resurgence and reconciliation are woven together in practice.
Join us for an evening of insight, reflection, and shared responsibility as we explore what it means to build just futures through relationship with one another and the Land.
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About Dr. Gina Starblanket and Dr. Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark
Dr. Gina Starblanket is an Associate Professor in the School of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria. She is Cree/Saulteaux and a member of the Star Blanket Cree Nation in Treaty 4. Dr. Starblanket’s writings address Indigenous-settler relations, Indigenous movements towards political transformation, and Indigenous feminisms. She is co-editor of NAIS, the journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and her publications include Making Space for Indigenous Feminisms, 3rd ed. (Fernwood Press, 2024), Storying Violence: Unravelling Colonial Narratives in the Stanley Trial (ARP Press, 2020), and Visions of the Heart: Issues Involving Indigenous Peoples in Canada, 5th and 6th eds. (OUP, 2019 & 2025).
Dr. Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark is a Turtle Mountain Anishinaabekwe and Associate Professor in the School of Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria, where she also directs the Centre for Indigenous Research and Community-Led Engagement (CIRCLE). Her work centers Indigenous law, governance, and treaty relations, with a strong foundation in Anishinaabe political thought and legal traditions.
Dr. Stark’s scholarship explores how Indigenous peoples have long maintained their own political authority and legal orders, despite ongoing efforts by settler states to limit or criminalize Indigenous sovereignty. Her research attends closely to treaty-making, consent, and gendered violence within legal systems, offering relational approaches to governance grounded in responsibility, accountability, and renewal.
A 2024 inductee into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Dr. Stark’s teaching and writing support Indigenous resurgence by reconnecting law and governance to land, relationships, and enduring Indigenous political traditions.