Kegan McFadden, Executive Director
Trudi Smith, President, Board of Directors
Open Space
510 Fort Street
openspace@openspace.ca

March 5, 2018

I am writing on behalf of the Department of Writing to express our collective support for the call to action from Aboriginal Curatorial Collective–Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ACC-CCA), issued last week in the aftermath of the resignation by France Trépanier, the Aboriginal Curator of Open Space, and the letter sent to its board of directors on February 20.

On Wednesday, February 28, we met as colleagues and voted to suspend our ongoing collaboration with Open Space via the "Open Word" reading series until the concerns raised by France Trépanier around representation, leadership, erasure, and deindigenization have been resolved by the board and the executive director of Open Space.

We understand that the board has responded to some of these concerns and there will be meetings to continue the conversation. Open Space has played a valuable role in its support of the local and national literary communities; our faculty, students and alumni have benefitted greatly from access to its venue, support from its staff and attendance at its events. We look forward to the satisfactory resolution of the vital issues raised by France Trépanier and the ACC-CCA around communication, leadership and respect for the role of its Aboriginal Curator, after which we hope to continue our collaboration on literary events with Open Space.

Sincerely,
David Leach

Chair, Department of Writing
writingchair@uvic.ca, (250) 721-7627

CC: France Trépanier
Clayton Windatt, Executive Director, ACC-CCA