Petition to:
Gillian Siddall - President of Emily Carr University of Art + design
Patricia Kelly - Vice President +Academic Provost
Adrian Tees - Associate Vice President Student Resources
Cissie Fu - Dean, Faculty of Culture + Community
Celeste Martin - Dean, Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design + Dynamic Media
Kyla Mallett - Dean, Audain Faculty of Art
Steven Lam - Associate Vice President Research + Dean, Jake Kerr Faculty of Graduate Studies
Board of Governors
Senate
All administration
To be presented to ECUAD in writing by Thursday July 16th, 2020.
To be orated Monday July 27th, 2020 at 2:00 pm PST on campus, EVERYONE is welcome to join.
As of June 2nd 2020, Gillian Siddall, the President of Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD) had yet to publicly speak out about the murders of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, amongst countless more of our Black and Indigenous siblings; nor address the racism, structural racism, and white supremacy that exists within ECUAD. When the president did provide a statement, the ECUAD community was enraged. Students promptly formed an Anti-Racist Initiative, taking ECUAD Administration’s lack of competent leadership, and deeply misaligned values as a cue to act.
ECUAD continues to acknowledge (but not publicly on their website) their occupation on unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations, yet continually forgets that “decolonization is not a metaphor.” ECUAD must be held accountable to these acknowledgments. As ECUAD continues to position and entrench itself in a global capital market, it not only alienates itself further away from decolonization, anti-racism, and justice, but actively contributes to marginalized peoples dispossession and oppression. ECUAD has a special responsibility, as an arts institution, to be a leader in fighting this enclosure, particularly by examining its relationship to whiteness and white supremacy.
Like in all facets of the western art world and in fellow art institutions, whiteness has dominated, and anti-black racism has poisoned ECUAD. The ECUAD Administration continues to fail its Black students, and has failed their Black community with its unacceptable and dismissive statement—a failure which students and faculty have expressed publicly again and again. The Anti-Racist Initiative is one of many community formations needed to address the white supremacy plastered on the walls of this “white cube” institution. From having our community’s needs discussed in powerful rooms, but not addressed, to unravelling the paradoxes that exist within ECUAD’s neoliberal framework of white supremacy culture, we understand the Anti-Racist Initiative is up against a well oiled machine that will take persistence and perseverance to dismantle. These are our needs, these are our lives, these are our futures; we will not back down.
ECUAD Administration needs to acknowledge their abuse of power, oppressive tactics, and actively work to create a democratically run pluriversity void of oppressive rules. ECUAD needs to begin healing the broken relationships and open wounds that have festered between every existing hierarchy. To do so, the Faculty Association has called for an Open Community Forum, which has been suggested countless times by the Social Justice Working Group, and echoed by Emily Carr Students’ Union (ECSU). The ECSU received an administrative response reiterating that they were hesitant to hold this forum due to students’ “safety.” To that, we respond with words from activist Kai Cheng Thom:
"Safety is, I believe, an inherently classed, raced, and gendered experience that frequently runs the risk of being used for regressive ends — for restricting the freedoms of the vulnerable, those who ironically are never really safe. Often, we see the call for safety actually reinforce the presence of oppressive institutions like the police and the prison system in our lives. When we choose safety over liberation, our movements fail."
ECUAD is globally praised for being a progressive arts institution. Yet, the institution has failed to formalize through actions its responsibility to dismantle white supremacy and be a leader in anti-racist actions. The lived experiences of our Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPoC) students make visible the paradoxes that exist between ECUAD’s doctrine and their actions. It can then be deduced that ECUAD’s reputation is rather a cleverly crafted front used to create optics of justice, whilst committing veiled insidious violences.
We are here to hold you accountable for both what is stated to be ECU Strategic Goals for 2021 and what we deserve as students of ECUAD. Over the last month and a half, the Anti-Racist Initiative has practiced what a safe, democratic, accessible, caring, and anti-racist educational community truly is. (Amendment: We are actively working towards these values. We are still growing; we are still learning.) With this lived expertise, we demand the following:
-ECUAD Administration issue a public apology to its Black students, and publicly stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the Black community at ECUAD, on the home page of their website. ECUAD must also demonstrate their solidarity by providing resources to its Black students.
-ECUAD Administration to stop using “safety” as an oppressive tool and hold an Open ECUAD Community Forum the week of September 6th, 2020, and publicly announce the confirmed forum date by August 1st, 2020. This forum will be facilitated by a democratically chosen panel of 6 community members (3 Students, 3 faculty). The president and vice-president will participate in this forum. We demand students be given the opportunity to share our stories and begin to heal as a community.
-We demand that ECUAD begins rebranding the entire institution with a January 1st, 2025 deadline of the 100 year anniversary of the institution. Specifically: removing the namesake Emily Carr, changing its logo, and an incorporation into institutional frameworks and communications, an accurate account of the colonial white-supremacist nature of Emily Carr’s work and what it represents. All students must be allowed to submit suggestions for rebranding (namesake, logo), the finalization of which will be decided by an institution wide vote including all stakeholders.
-ECUAD Administration empower its internal grass-roots initiatives by ceding power to these organizations. -ECUAD has failed in their public Anti-Racism Resources, Supports and Organizations page by not listing a single resource or organization from within ECUAD for community members to connect with. This continues to demonstrate ECUAD’s preference to resource third party, top down, initiatives that do not address the specific needs of our most vulnerable community members.
-ECUAD to rewrite the entirety of the “About Us” section on their website. The ECU At a Glance section: Core Values, Emily Carr, The Artist, and History + Evolution does not once mention the history and violent relationship
ECUAD, and Emily Carr has to its occupation on unceded Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. We demand ECUAD publicly acknowledge its failures and exploitative relationship to these nations, its Indigenous students, community, and land on the home page of their website, and to all stakeholders.
-ECUAD listens to the needs of its students, and responds with curiosity, attention, care, and direct action that moves beyond, breaks, and changes pre-existing rules, regulations, criteria, stipulations, legal structures, or policies that hinder the meeting our needs. We demand ECUAD rewrite and change any barriers that exist between our needs being met and the systems and structures preventing them. To not do so, is to commit violence.
In the event that our demands and needs are not met according to the dates listed, or a mutually agreed upon timeline negotiated between the Anti-Racist Initiative and the Petitionees, we will be enacting escalated actions including but not limited to:
-Contacting the media, government, and donors
-Protesting in and occupying physical and virtual spaces at ECUAD
-Holding a student tuition strike
A comprehensive list of FURTHER DEMANDS ARE LISTED IN THE GOOGLE DOC LINK BELOW and unless stated otherwise, a plan, including timelines for implementation of each demand, should be communicated to the Anti-Racist Initiative by August 1st, 2020 (
antiracistinitiative@gmail.com).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Opyov5spEuHJ_WdgZYp_ahZ6gK8Ehfq_c7y9MWGM7Tw/edit#Citations, full list of petitionees, and other resources can be found in the above link. Please comment on and share the document with everyone you know!
List of our signatories:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WklOyeKrw2sjO_Vo3EQ8eoVJP9cnmhvrOXuPxMOynos/edit#gid=0