Fanning the Flames of Resistance
摘要
Positioned as a Canadian South Asian female educator and researcher, I came alongside two South Asian girls, their mothers, and teacher(s) to narratively inquire into our experiences. Revisiting imposed plotlines of difference, we purposely interrogated and agitated taken-for-granted discriminatory tropes while empowering and emboldening artful resistance. In this chapter, I reflect upon a storied experience of discrimination shared by one young co-participant, Deepika, that occurred in her place of school. In this case, an authority figure (in)advertently marked difference in profoundly harmful ways upon Deepika and by extension, the other impressionable children in the class. For racialized children, awareness of how difference is perceived and taken-up are of especial concern. This was one of many disquieting experiences the girls disclosed in this longitudinal and artful multiperspectival narrative inquiry. Thinking with larger narratives of racism and discrimination lived in Canada, I also relate how a particular artmaking activity enacted spaces for both girl co-learners, Katrina and Deepika, to build upon their sense of agency and bolster resistance to pejorative plotlines of their identities and identity making. In doing so, I attempt to make visible how inculcating artmaking as a pedagogical heuristic can meaningfully disrupt discriminatory practices and narratives perpetuated upon children of colour.