Taking place this year from September 12 to 17, 2022

Peterborough, ON - OPIRG Peterborough announced that they will be hosting their annual Dis-Orientation Week this year from September 12th through September 17th. The organization plans on hosting 19 events throughout 6 eventful days, all of which are run by local community organizations and facilitators.

Dis-Orientation Week (Dis-O Week) is a week of various events and activities oriented around social justice, environmental justice and anti-oppression put on by Trent groups and members of the community. Dis-O Week is an integral part of keeping the embers of activist culture burning at Trent. Through this week, a new group of students and community members are invited to participate in and join the future of social justice, environmental justice and anti-oppression at Trent and in the community.

This annual program was sparked by the administration’s attempt to close Trent’s downtown, more progressive colleges and centralize the university in 1999. From this attempted shift towards a more neo-liberalized school, Dis-Orientation Week was born as a form of resistance for activists in the community and has continued on until today.

Before announcing details about this year’s Dis-Orientation Week, OPIRG Peterborough would like to acknowledge that those of us who are settlers are uninvited guests occupying Traditional Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg Territory. We are located on the land associated with the Williams Treaty of 1923 and Rice Lake Treaty #20 of 1818. We are grateful that the Indigenous peoples of this territory, and Turtle Island as a whole, have been caretakers and inhabitants of the land since time immemorial. Michi Saagiig

Nishnaabeg teachings, ceremonies, language, and traditions are intrinsic to the territory and should dually be respected with our own ways of living.

The theme for this year’s Dis-Orientation Week is Resistance and Community Building: Supporting and uplifting one another while simultaneously resisting colonialism, capitalism, and the cis-heteropatriarchy.

OPIRG Peterborough hopes that this year’s lineup of events will inspire students to form culture-changing relationships with each other and their event leaders to build momentum and sustainability within the activist culture at Trent. Through the variety of events held at this year’s Dis-O Week, they also hope to provide this as an opportunity for students and community members to connect, learn, take action, and have fun.

Events at Dis-Orientation Week 2022: Mythbusters: Challenging Narratives and Stereotypes of Sexual Violence and Trafficking, AVP - Mini Workshop, Zines as Radical Information Sharing, Male Leadership on Campus, Collective Divestment, Race, Resitance, Revolutions: A Film Retrospective, Farm to Table Tour, Our Bodies? The Handmaid’s Tale in 2022, Virtual GAYme Night, Grow With Us! Tie Dye Event and Tour of the Trent Apiary, Vegetable Garden, and Market Garden, Dismantling Settler Colonialism and Whiteness with Shaneese Anne Steele, Take Back the Night: Rising Stronger Together, Seed to Salsa, Community Picnic and Open Mic with Sarah Lewis, Movie Night & Post-Film Discussion, Free Market Giveaway & Vegan BBQ, Mutual Aid, Dual Power Economics, and Ecologies of Solidarity, and Warrior Women Film Screening & Discussion.

‍Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) was first established in Ontario in 1973. The Peterborough Chapter of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) provides space, resources and support for students and community members to develop activist and transferable skills while working on social and environmental issues necessary for meaningful social change. The organization’s mission is to work to create and sustain student and community-based engagement through research, education, and action on social justice and environmental issues; challenging oppression in all its forms; and using consensus-based decision making in a non-hierarchical and accessible setting.

Registrations are now open! If interested in attending this year’s Dis-Orientation Week, please visit this link for more details on events and how to register.

Interested in gaining volunteer hours and assisting OPIRG Peterborough in Dis-Orientation Week 2022?

This year, the organization is looking for volunteers to fill various roles and positions! Sign up today using this link: OPIRG Peterborough Volunteer Form. Tell your friends and become a volunteer today!

Want to learn more about OPIRG Peterborough or Dis-Orientation Week 2022? Follow @opirgptbo on Instagram for the latest updates on the event dates, times, and locations!

Please contact opirglistings@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns