Unravelling the seams: text(ile)s of compassionate un/settling

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Date
2023-12-31
Authors
Martens, Monica
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Abstract

In this performative inquiry, I stitch my own experiences of un/settling in an educational context together with an art-ful practice of contemplative quiltmaking. This study is in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action for education. Through performative inquiry, I take moments that call my attention—un/settling moments—to the fabric and ask, “What do I need to know, right here, right now?” What happens when a teacher/a community member/a family member unmakes/unsettles/unlearns with a quilt in her hands? What does she learn about unsettling? Throughout the inquiry, care is taken to centre compassionate landscapes of knowing, being, and becoming, in the making of quilts, research inquiry, and texts that communicate knowledge and knowing. A significant aspect of the study is its context; a small, rural, farming, town in the Canadian prairies settled in the early 1870s. I draw on autoethnography to understand un/settling moments in relation to culture, society, and family. Readers are invited to read a thesis, unconventional in form and style; an embodied step towards un/settling.

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Keywords
reconciliation, unsettling, arts-based research, performative inquiry, compassion, contemplative studies, quilt making, quilts, rural context, education, Mennonite, settler studies
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