ABSTRACT
Dickenson describes herself as White Settler and Indigenous, ‘reading’ as white and having grown up far from her Métis community and culture. Dickenson developed a conceptual framework she calls Engaged Decolonial Practice (EDP) while working on her PhD research-creation project to collaboratively curate the Ace Truelove Collection of BIPOC art, with Barry Ace and Earl Truelove. EDP is a ‘conceptual process’ based on critical self-reflexivity and engagement with the evolving debate around decolonization and shifting grounds of systemic racism. Dickenson uses EDP to assess how she navigates and measures her impact, accountability and responsibility as a cultural worker of settler and Métis ancestry in Canada. To practice EDP, she engages in a process of ‘intimate self-reflexive probing’, or ‘check-ins’ with herself regarding her intentions, self-interest, emotional intelligence, relevant skills and reasons for/responsibilities in collaboration. She argues that institutions would benefit from implementing EDP for their staff to practice self-reflexivity and challenge how administrative habits perpetuate systemic racism.
