Awareness, Critique, and Resistance to Settler Colonialism Through Arts and Activism

• In Event: Building a Sustainable Future Through an Understanding of Neoliberalism, Youth, Art, and Resistance

Abstract

Purpose
This paper details the pedagogical and cultural work of two youth-led organizations situated in Canada - Beat Nation and 411 Initiative for Change. Through the narratives generated by interviews with the organizations' artists and founders and through artists' music, multi-media presentations, and speaking engagements, we illustrate how public pedagogies related to the arts, can reveal and critique the negative effects of settler colonialism.
Perspective:
Critical citizenship studies informed this work. Unlike many scholars who limit their investigation of youths' citizenship activities to being involved in typically adult channels of voting or in political work, critical citizenship scholars have examined social spaces in which young people learn and experience citizenship. In this presentation, we argue youth consume and produce art in order to understand and teach others what is responsible for environmental devastation.
Methodology
Six hip-hop intellectuals from the Beat Nation participated in this study. Their oral histories were developed through semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and then analyzed using grounded theoretical methodology. In addition, document analysis of artifacts – which included lyrics, curatorial statements, artists’ assertions, and public records – was conducted.
The aforementioned methodological approach was employed with members of the 411 Initiative for Change. Two of the organization's directors, along with four of the organization's artists, took part in the study.
Data Sources
In addition to examining the participants’ narratives, we examined the organizations' web sites, read about the organizations' activist work, viewed the artists’ videos, and examined their lyrics, photos, and sculptures to gauge how the organizations' supported active forms of citizenship.
Results
The Beat Nation promotes citizenship by uniting community, art, and activism. The participants develop agency and empowerment from the authentic, grounded experiences and perceptions of youth. Notions of cultural norms and community belonging are understood as a contested perspective that paves the way for engagement and participation.
Second, the notion of “love” recurs throughout the work of Beat Nation. Beat Nation artists refer to “love” as a productive form of energy that, particularly coupled with critical consciousness, can strengthen human bonds and counteract forces of injustice.
Third, members of the Beat Nations also speak to promoting citizenship by generating associations among the histories and traditions of Indigenous culture and hip-hop artists.
Similarly, 411 participants are cognizant of what causes social inequalities, committed to using art to connect youth and communities in a struggle to improve their world, and to using the past to critically understand the present in order to build a more promising future. However, the participants speak more specifically how they guide their youth-based audience to reflect upon the nature of their world as well as to understand key tenets associated with active citizenship.
Significance
This study indicates that the cultural manifestations and activist work of youth-led organizations hold the potential to ensure citizenship formation is predicated on revealing and critiquing settler colonialism, rather than keeping in place citizenship formulations that keep youth complicit in their own marginality.

Authors

• Bradley J. Porfilio, California State University - East Bay

• Julie Gorlewski, SUNY - College at New Paltz