Decolonization, Reconciliation & Indigenization

Decolonization in Education

Most of us are famil­iar with the term ‘decol­o­niza­tion,’ but per­haps less clear about what this term means in edu­ca­tion, and more specif­i­cal­ly, with­in the realms of our day-to-day teach­ing. We can­not cre­ate tru­ly inclu­sive and engag­ing teach­ing and learn­ing spaces with­out address­ing the his­tor­i­cal and ongo­ing effects of colo­nial­ism.

Con­tent, ped­a­go­gies, and the struc­tures that sup­port our work as instruc­tors are all based on colo­nial sys­tems. NIC’s Indi­g­e­niza­tion Plan — Work­ing Togeth­er states that, “The recla­ma­tion, recov­ery, resur­gence, and renew­al of Indige­nous cul­ture, lan­guage, and holis­tic rela­tion­ships with self, spir­it, land, com­mu­ni­ty, and oth­ers is at the heart of decol­o­niza­tion” (p. 15).

For fac­ul­ty, decol­o­niza­tion in edu­ca­tion requires us to engage in an inten­tion­al process of chal­leng­ing, unset­tling, and trans­form­ing sys­tems, prac­tices, and assump­tions that priv­i­lege colo­nial world­views, while restor­ing space, author­i­ty, and legit­i­ma­cy to Indige­nous and oth­er his­tor­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized ways of know­ing, being, and learn­ing. It is a process, not a prod­uct or final des­ti­na­tion. It is not a check­list to be ful­filled, or a metaphor for gen­er­al inclu­sion. The process of decol­o­niza­tion is ongo­ing and iter­a­tive. Rather than ask­ing us to erase West­ern knowl­edge, it requires us to decen­ter its dom­i­nance.

At its heart, decol­o­niza­tion asks us to shift from a par­a­digm of con­trol and dom­i­nance toward one of rela­tion­ship, respect, and respon­si­bil­i­ty.

Along with advo­cat­ing for changes in sys­tems and poli­cies, we can:

  • Acknowl­edge Indige­nous lands and rela­tion­ships mean­ing­ful­ly at the begin­ning of class (beyond per­for­ma­tive state­ments) that reflect an under­stand­ing of our own posi­tion­al­i­ty

  • Rethink assess­ment prac­tices that priv­i­lege cer­tain ways of think­ing or com­mu­ni­cat­ing and include oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to demon­strate their learn­ing in diverse ways. Include oral tra­di­tions, sto­ry­telling, and land-based learn­ing in our teach­ing
  • Exam­ine whose knowl­edge is includ­ed in our teach­ing, ques­tion­ing Euro­cen­tric norms that posi­tion West­ern knowl­edge as neu­tral, uni­ver­sal, or supe­ri­or
  • Educate our­selves about the ongo­ing impacts of colo­nial­ism, under­stand­ing how his­to­ries of land dis­pos­ses­sion, cul­tur­al sup­pres­sion, and sys­temic inequity con­tin­ue to shape learn­ers’ expe­ri­ences today
  • Bear­ing in mind our own posi­tion­al­i­ty and ‘what is’ and ‘what is not ours’ to share, respect­ful­ly cen­ter Indige­nous knowl­edge sys­tems and voic­es, not as ‘add-ons,’ but as valid, liv­ing knowl­edge sys­tems with their own epis­te­molo­gies, ped­a­go­gies, and ethics.  Explore ways of co-cre­at­ing cur­ricu­lum with local Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties and knowl­edge keep­ers

  • Redis­trib­ute pow­er in teach­ing and learn­ing, shift­ing author­i­ty away from sole­ly insti­tu­tion­al or instruc­tor con­trol toward rela­tion­al, com­mu­ni­ty-informed, and learn­er-cen­tered approach­es

Reconciliation in Education

Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in edu­ca­tion refers to the ongo­ing process of acknowl­edg­ing the harms of colonialism—especially the lega­cy of the res­i­den­tial school system—and active­ly trans­form­ing edu­ca­tion­al sys­tems so they are more just, inclu­sive, and respon­sive to Indige­nous Peo­ples. In Cana­da, this work is ground­ed in The Truth & Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Com­mis­sion of Cana­da: Calls to Action, par­tic­u­lar­ly those focused on edu­ca­tion (Calls to Action 6–12 and 62–65).

Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion begins with truth:

  • The his­to­ry and impacts of the Indi­an Res­i­den­tial School sys­tem
  • Ongo­ing sys­temic inequities affect­ing First Nations, Inu­it, and Métis learn­ers
  • How cur­ricu­lum and insti­tu­tion­al struc­tures have priv­i­leged West­ern knowl­edge sys­tems

It is not sim­ply about adding con­tent, a sin­gle work­shop, or sim­ply adding a land acknowl­edge­ment; it is about con­fronting struc­tur­al injus­tice and advo­cat­ing for struc­tur­al change.

Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion requires Indige­nous lead­er­ship.

While “Decol­o­niza­tion refers to the process of decon­struct­ing colo­nial ide­olo­gies of the supe­ri­or­i­ty and priv­i­lege of West­ern thought and approach­es,” rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, “Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion is about address­ing past wrongs done to Indige­nous Peo­ples, mak­ing amends, and improv­ing rela­tion­ships between Indige­nous and non-Indige­nous peo­ple to cre­ate a bet­ter future for all” (Pulling Togeth­er: A Guide for Cur­ricu­lum Devel­op­ers)

Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion in edu­ca­tion involves sys­temic and rela­tion­al change.

Cur­ricu­lum: Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion means respect­ful­ly inte­grat­ing Indige­nous his­to­ries, per­spec­tives, and con­tem­po­rary real­i­ties across dis­ci­plines. It requires us to move beyond “add-on” units toward mean­ing­ful inclu­sion of Indige­nous schol­ars and voic­es in pro­grams and cours­es. Doing so, requires us to remem­ber once again, ‘what is’ and ‘what is not ours’ to share

Ped­a­gogy: Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion means hon­or­ing Indige­nous ways of know­ing, being, and learn­ing. It means teach­ing in ways that val­ue rela­tion­al­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ty, land-based learn­ing, and sto­ry­telling. It means reflect­ing on whose knowl­edge is cen­tered in cur­rent course mate­ri­als, revis­ing con­tent, and design­ing assess­ments that allow mul­ti­ple ways of demon­strat­ing learn­ing (e.g., invit­ing stu­dents to demon­strate their learn­ing in a modal­i­ty that res­onates with them rather than allow­ing only one way to show learn­ing). It is a ped­a­gogy found­ed on cre­at­ing cul­tur­al­ly safer class­room spaces, for exam­ple giv­ing time to rela­tion­ship and com­mu­ni­ty build­ing.

Indigenization in Education

Indi­g­e­niza­tion in edu­ca­tion refers to the inten­tion­al and ongo­ing process of trans­form­ing edu­ca­tion­al sys­tems so that Indige­nous knowl­edges, per­spec­tives, lan­guages, and ped­a­go­gies are mean­ing­ful­ly inte­grat­ed — not added as an after­thought but embed­ded elder as val­ued and foun­da­tion­al ways of know­ing.

In the Cana­di­an con­text, Indi­g­e­niza­tion is close­ly con­nect­ed to the Truth and Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion Com­mis­sion of Cana­da: Calls to Action [PDF], and to Indige­nous rights frame­works such as the Unit­ed Nations Dec­la­ra­tion on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples (UNDRIP) [PDF] and Dec­la­ra­tion on the Rights of Indige­nous Peo­ples Act (DRIPA).

Rec­og­niz­ing our posi­tion­al­i­ty and acknowl­edg­ing the bound­aries of what it is/isn’t appro­pri­ate for us to teach:

  1. Cen­ter­ing Indige­nous Knowl­edge Sys­tems — Rec­og­niz­ing that the diverse Indige­nous ways of know­ing — rela­tion­al, land-based, oral, holis­tic — are valid and rig­or­ous knowl­edge sys­tems along­side West­ern aca­d­e­m­ic tra­di­tions. This includes spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment
  2. Embed­ding Indige­nous Per­spec­tives Across Cur­ricu­lum — Not lim­it­ing Indige­nous con­tent to a sin­gle lec­ture or unit, but inte­grat­ing it mean­ing­ful­ly and respect­ful­ly through­out cours­es and pro­grams
  3. Trans­form­ing Ped­a­gogy- Hon­or­ing teach­ing approach­es such as: Sto­ry­telling, com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, land-based learn­ing, and learn­ing through rela­tion­ship. This also includes acknowl­edg­ing the con­cept of holism: “Indige­nous ped­a­go­gies focus on the devel­op­ment of a human being as a whole per­son. Aca­d­e­m­ic or cog­ni­tive knowl­edge is val­ued, but self-aware­ness, emo­tion­al growth, social growth, and spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment are also val­ued” (Pulling Togeth­er: A Guide for Cur­ricu­lum Devel­op­ers)

Decol­o­niza­tion focus­es on chal­leng­ing and dis­man­tling colo­nial struc­tures, decen­tral­iz­ing Euro­cen­tric knowl­edge sys­tems and ped­a­go­gies. Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion focus­es on repair­ing rela­tion­ships and address­ing his­tor­i­cal harm. Indi­g­e­niza­tion focus­es on embed­ding Indige­nous lead­er­ship and ways of being and know­ing in edu­ca­tion.

In the next sec­tions, we’ll explore resources avail­able to sup­port devel­op­ing our teach­ing, as well as spe­cif­ic exam­ples of how to approach decol­o­niza­tion, rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and Indi­g­e­niza­tion in dif­fer­ent sub­ject mat­ter areas.

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