Q. Which reading have you most effectively engaged with, and in what ways?
When I was a child, I grew up in a small village that was located in the middle of a mountain. I have lots of beautiful memories of roaming around the mountain without any worries; I would feel the wonders of small things: such as nameless flowers, the sound of streams, the rocks that I could lie down on, rays of sunshine, and so on. Thus, I could totally engage with the Kwezens’ maple syrup making story and the indigenous knowledge, for that resembles my childhood experiences. The relationship between the girl and the nature, the relationship between the girl and her loving mother, and the relationship between the ladies in the village are exactly same to my own experience. I sometimes compare my childhood to my daughter’s childhood and feel sorry for her. She grew up in the city of Vancouver, and her contact with nature is limited to the backyard of my house or travels. Of course, I cannot imagine her roaming around the town on her own. The relationship between neighbours are most of the time very dry or almost non-existent. On the same land, indigenous people and we settlers seem to live totally different realities: one is living in warm, stable, and intimate world; and the other is living in fragmented, and isolated world.

Q. At this point, how are you relating to the themes for the course: forests and food?
I am still in the middle of learning interdisciplinary methodology and have amazed by how diverse the perspectives could be through these two subjects. The first lecture of the forests made a big impression to me as a new way of studying. The selection of reading materials expanded my perception of knowledge until then; I found knowledge could be much more wholistic with all the different views and the responding methodology. Meanwhile, food made me focus more about the principles of interdisciplinary studies and how to be critical: questioning evidence, the hidden values, issues of power, and possibilities for social change. I appreciate both of the themes for showing me eye-opening approaches for knowledge.

Q. What has been your learning experience with guest presentations and/or related events that you have attended?
I recall two events with a guest presenter and professors. The first one is Lindsay McIntyre’s art presentation. At first, I expected a presentation with more indigenous way of contents, but soon I started to enjoy her way of pursuing old fashioned film art, manually and stubbornly. Then, the film of her missing grandmother’s hands touched something in me. The hard-wrinkled hand reminded me my own grandmother, who loved me and passed away long time ago. Now, I realize she represents a resilient and strong indigenous women herself, with the legacy and trauma of colonialism. Moreover, her way of learning and pursuing art is exactly the ones that our lecture taught: self directed, hands-on style, slow but lifetime learning. The second experience I recall is the forest visiting with the biology faculty. Before the class, I anticipated learning something from them, but what they did was just distributing the materials and watching us. Counting each species without any training was so random that I worried the correctness of our data. Later, I heard what’s important was its methodology, not the data we collected, and felt relieved. However, I still think the bio faculty could have done something better to enhance the students’ experiences.

Q. Do you find yourself thinking differently about knowledge in other contexts? in other classes? at work?
For me, knowledge has all different shapes depending on the field of study. For example, academic knowledge exists in academic journals or textbooks, cooking knowledge exists in the recipes or video clips, bank operation knowledge exists in the process manuals, knowledge of everyday living exists in wise people’s brains or in Google. To me, they are all segregated fields of knowledge and their scope is quite fixed. In Liberal Studies, the ideas and forms of knowledge crash into each other and make new things. The outer forms breakdown, but ideas inside flow intertwined. The process is quite amusing to see. I also feel liberated and empowered, thinking that all knowledge is subjective and contextual, and there are multiple answers on one issue.