Abstract:
In this presentation, Sonia Martin shares the story of her transdisciplinary research in which she considers the connections between water, language, and international education. Sonia describes how she came to the water-language connection accidentally while critiquing colonial language policies in Canada that uphold linguistic racism, and how the water-language connection led to a partnership with a local Kanyen'kéha (Mohawk language) teacher and cultural consultant, Kristi Talbot. Together they facilitated an international education intervention at a Lake Ontario beach for a diverse group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The intervention included a water-based Kanyen'kéha lesson and relational languaging activities with the beach. Informed by a transgressive framework that includes Haudenosaunee teachings and critical multilingual language awareness theory, this research responds to the question of what might happen when the water-language connection is prioritized in international education. Sonia shares findings from the research that include possibilities for relationship-building between peoples and between humans and other natural beings. She also discusses tensions and transgressions to consider when engaging non-Indigenous people in Indigenous language learning. Sonia concludes with an invitation to think with water for understanding language practices in unique contexts.

Bio:
Sonia Martin is a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Education at York University and a descendent of white European settlers to Canada. Sonia prioritizes embodied, collaborative, and creative methods in research and teaching that support unlearning coloniality and noticing points of connection within linguistically and culturally diverse groups in adult and post-secondary education. Sonia's work has been published in Language and Literacy, Journal of Comparative and International Education, and the UnLeading Project. Sonia spends her free time in and around the Great Lakes, most often the one she lives closest to, Onyatarí:yo.