I was delighted to receive the TSA Student award to attend and present my research at the biennial symposium which this year was held in Vancouver, Canada. It was my first TSA symposium and first visit to the city and I was impressed with the attention to detail in the organisation and schedule, and the variety of inspiring, thought provoking and quality papers by scholars and practitioners responding to the symposium theme ‘The Social Fabric Deep Local to Pan Global’. Many of the papers and keynotes did well to respond to issues relevant to the locality of Vancouver, such as decolonisation, reconciliation of First Nation communities and the repatriation of…