Finding and building homeplace
“A lot of my degree was spent in the Gender Studies reading room, hanging out with my friends in a space where I could show up and be greeted, learn something from someone. It was so beautiful,” says Eric Willis, who is graduating with a BA Honours in Gender Studies and a minor in Applied Ethics this spring.
Born on the territory of the K'ómoks First Nation and raised on the coastal geographies of the Snaw’naw’as and Qualicum First Nations, Eric Willis began their studies at UVic after spending time abroad after high school. Five years later, their experiences as a student—including participating in a student panel entitled “What Does Love Have to do with Teaching Anti-Racism, Decolonization and Anti-Sexist, Gender Inclusive Content?”, organized by the centre for Learning and Teaching Support and Innovation, and publishing their writing with the undergraduate journal On Politics—have laid the foundation for, Willis hopes, a future in teaching, using love and polyamory as a pedagogical tool.
For Willis, Gender Studies was a community where they could engage in academic conversations around queerness, marginalization, and identity. Under the pedagogical umbrella of Gender Studies, they encountered courses that they describe as “changing my whole perspective on everything:” a course in animal rights and feminist ethics taught by Georgia Sitara; Indigeneity, Gender, and Land, taught by waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy; and a feminist art field school taught by Chase Joynt.
“The feminist art field school taught me that I can actually be an artist in my life, and use my art practice to spread information, and make a career out of it,” they reflect.
As an Honours student supervised by waaseyaa’sin Christine Sy, Willis researched Indigenous decolonization and queer settler colonialism at music festivals and raves, a project that was first prompted by their experiences as a queer, non-binary settler of German/Scottish/Irish descent in the rave and music scene during their undergraduate studies.
“I didn’t see much critical thinking about what allows predominantly settler people to attend these music festivals and raves. Is there something that needs to be said about how we occupy these spaces? I also noticed in these spaces a lot of potential for expression, creativity and community and thinking outside structures, but at the same time, those environments can be microcosms of the larger society that they are positioned in,” explains Willis.
As a queer settler, Willis notes, there’s an expectation to uphold the state and its power systems—heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism. Through their research, they wanted to unpack the complexities of navigating pleasure and joy in these spaces and show that there are opportunities to build anti-colonial coalitions. Intentionally bringing demographics together to discuss and share ideas can bring important perspectives to the surface to change and improve the experience, creating a space for learning and the co-creation of knowledge.
"I'm leaning on, from bell hooks, this sense of homeplace, spaces that we can co-create as sites of resistance where perspectives are exchanged and new ways of seeing reality are discovered.”
- Eric Willis
Part of the importance of studying music festivals and raves through the lens of Indigenous decolonization and settler colonialism, says Willis, is prompting people to think about their relationship to place in these spaces, where participants often travel and create transitory communities. Because their Honours research was supported by a Jamie Cassels Undergraduate Research Award, their work is now displayed in the Gender Studies hallway in Clearihue. Recalling how they read and admired the work of JCURA students when they began their degree, they hoped to share research that they would have wanted to see as a first-year student.
“I really hope more than anything, rather than people seeing this work and thinking I’m just trying to tear down these queer communities, I’m showing that there are real steps that we can take to support Indigenous peoples’ sovereignty and self-determination everywhere.”
Community-mindedness is not only central to Willis’s research. Throughout their time at UVic, Willis has been involved with the Gender Empowerment Centre (GEM), an inclusive space for students and community members focused on the needs of self-identified women, non-binary, trans and gender non-conforming folks.
“The GEM is really important to me, as another home space,” shares Willis. “I came to know these home spaces where you can show up at any time, you would be greeted there, you always have conversation, people respect you, there’s no buy-in or expectation of you except to be another collective member. That is so important.” At the GEM, they volunteered by offering gender identity workshops, building close relationships with other collective members. In their final year at UVic, they served as the collective’s UVSS board representative. They’re especially proud of running a bake sale fundraiser for Palestine and expanding on free resources offered in the space, adding HIV instant tests and anal douches to the existing supply of birth control and menstrual supplies.
“It was meaningful for me to be able to provide for the communities that I’m a part of,” says Willis. Working with other community members, they advocated for and passed a referendum that will ensure sustainable funding for GEM for the future. “I’m so proud to have been a part of that.”