Learning to listen differently: Witnessing survivor testimony and implications for ethical responses

During the Educators for Solidarity Initiative in 2017, participants bore witness to survivor testimony about the 1981 massacre that took place on the banks of the Rio Lempa in El Salvador. It is the experience of bearing witness to survivor testimony with participants who accompanied me on this journey, whose affective responses, unsettlement, and understanding of settler responsibilities are at the center of this study. Explored through autoethnography and life writing methodologies this qualitative study aimed to answer the central research question: “Does the act of witnessing survivor testimony at the Rio Lempa impact the obligations of (settler) witnessing and ethical responses? If so, in what ways?” Data analysis of the affective and ethical responses to bearing witness to survivor testimony of four white, settler women revealed that the participants were address-able and response-able to the story/teller. The act of witnessing survivor testimony at the Rio Lempa impacted the obligations of (settler) witnessing and ethical responses. The ethical responses to witnessing survivor testimony involved: acknowledgement, remembrance, recognition that the testimony was of consequence, retestifying, cultivating relationships, affective learning, critical empathy, listening with humility and vulnerability. Witnessing testimony abroad increased these settler participant’s capacity to become more relational towards Indian Residential School survivor testimony as they continue to interrogate their response-ability in relation to Indigenous peoples.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Education (MEd)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculm and Instruction

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Steffany, Salloum

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cappello, Michael

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Molina-Giron, Alison
• Sterzuk, Andrea

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4935

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/16189