Communal Practices -- Video #4 -- Kinewesquao / Cathy Richardson

Welcome to our fourth conversation in the “communal practices” project. In this video we are in conversation with Kinewesquao, also known as Cathy Richardson. Kinewesquao introduces herself in this video. She informs us, in what is an almost universal indigenous tradition, of “all her relations.” For her, as for many indigenous peoples across this continent of Turtle Island, it is important when meeting others, to share relations, to establish mutual connections, and, in turn, share relations to the lands that are part of a people's heritage. And, this is what Kinewesquao does throughout this conversation. Land and people, irrevocably tied together - a theme that repeats itself throughout our time together. In listening to Kinewesquao, the words a Sts’ailes elder once told me come to mind - "the people and the land are one."
I refer to Kinewesquao with a term that I have heard given to just a few people that I have met. That is, she is “a citizen of the world.” She has traveled and lived in a variety of places, all over this planet, searching, as she travels, for her people - that is, searching for those who hold communal values in high esteem, those who love and appreciate the land, who care for those who are hurting and suffering. Kinewesquao has been searching for these people her whole life. And, as you will witness in this conversation, she does find these people.
A little bit about Kinewesquao. She has both a masters degree and a doctorate. She has spent much of her career in the role of a counsellor. Kinewesquao, working with her colleagues, including Alan Wade, has been pivotal in the development of what is often known as response-based practice. But, her work, as she will tell us, is not about the nouns, not about the static descriptors that we use all too often to define our work. As Gene Combs also emphasized, Kinewesquao is looking away from the nouns to an understanding of life and work that flows like a river. And this work she talks about is not the work of an individual acting upon other people, rather it is a communal work - a work that always includes others. By the way, these others are often the more-than -- or other-than -- human. The work she describes is not about sitting in a sterile office -- it is a work that goes to nature, a work that makes artistic creations, a work that laughs as much as it protests. Also, as you will see, for Kinewesquao, this work is inescapably political. Kinewesquao actually ran for the federal Green Party in her home riding in Montreal.
It is an honour to welcome Kinewesquao - also known as Cathy Richardson.