RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE - BILLY-RAY BELCOURT
Describe your job in just under four sentences.
I would say that the work I do – staged across disparate but absolutely entangled geographies – doesn’t cohere under the rubric of “job.” That is, I am completing a BA (Hons.) in Comparative Literature, studying texts at the intersections of Native studies, women’s and gender studies, and popular culture. My work is part of a project that explores the ability to think about endurant Indigenous life in a world that can’t sustain it. This work has been published by Societies, rabble.ca, activehistory.ca, and is forthcoming in Feral Feminisms. Recently, I’ve been employed by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Imaginations: A Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, and the Old Strathcona Youth Society.
Why did you start working in your industry?
I’m interested in how life might be lived differently – in active opposition to the worldly inheritances not completing of our own making. Academia and grassroots activism, I would say, are two domains within which this happens, if only in emergent forms.
What do you enjoy the most about your job? What aspect makes you learn the most while on the job?
That it’s never done: there’s always more books to read, more papers to write, more actions to participate in, and better objects and worlds to imagine and attach to.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In five years, I expect to be in a PhD program in Canada or the United States, hopefully writing more poetry and non-fiction.
What does success look like to you?
I would say that success is a tricky analytic from which to think, always-already pointing to, and therefore reifying, what success doesn’t look like. And, this quickly sets-up an injunction of sorts: do this, not that. Perhaps we need a better affect to capture the things and moments of action that help us stay attached to life. That’s what success looks like: finding ways to stay in this world.
What has been the most outstanding moment thus far in your career?
That’s easy: being elected a 2016 Rhodes Scholar. In particular, having recognized the histories that made that election possible – the work I’ve done and that of those before me. It’s opened up new worlds for me.
Do you volunteer? If so, where and why is that important to you?
Yes, I am in my second term as the President of the Aboriginal Student Council at the University of Alberta. In this role, I advocate for upwards of 1,100 FNMI students. This looks like a lot of things: just being with our members (most of which I consider friends), holding administration accountable, hosting workshops, or organizing and playing on an intramurals volleyball team. I would say that volunteerism is important because it’s a kind of ethical commitment to being with others in ways that don’t destroy us. I remember wanting to volunteer because I had this pestering sense that I had to do something because so much had and still has to be done.
Do you have any advice for other Indigenous professionals in Canada?
Prioritize things that sustain you and your attachments to life.
What do you think is the most unique challenge for an Indigenous person in your industries?
We know Indigenous peoples face stubborn barriers to post-secondary education, and that some institutions do not create spaces in which those of us who do get there can flourish. For many of us, we aren’t only students, staff or faculty, but also activists of sorts, always fighting for something better for Indigenous peoples. Our challenge is to get to that something better.
What made you interested in joining the Indigenous Professional Association of Canada and why would you encourage others to join?
It’s important to hold each other up, and the Indigenous Professional Association of Canada is doing this in a very smart, collegial way.