Perspectives from Indigenizing an Indigenous course
Sean Hillier, Faculty of Health
Part 1: The Process of Indigenizing
The university has set out in recent years to make Experiential Education (EE) a priority across all faculties and programs; certainly, part of its recruiting efforts. With this focus on EE, I think it is a fantastic opportunity to leverage what EE can mean when paired with the university’s concurrent focus on Indigenous Education (see the Indigenous Framework). For me, the goals and objectives of EE share many similarities to my own approach and understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing.
Additionally, paired with this move towards EE, there appears to be an emphasis on moving away from a traditional western approach to learning that has dominated higher education for years - students sitting in a classroom with a professor standing at the front delivering a lecture or guiding a discussion. This format invokes the clear separation of power within the academy, and in no uncertain terms, reaffirms the notion of who holds the knowledge. In many ways, EE seeks to break down the ways in which we teach, with a greater focus on an applied approach to learning that will break down this power imbalance. In my culture, the Mi’kmaq, we do not learn through a confined power structure but rather, through shared understanding. We exemplify this through the use of a circle where the power imbalance is removed, and everyone is simultaneously a learner and a teacher; everyone participates in the transfer of knowledge equally.
Through this applied EE approach, we place the priority on seeing, feeling, and engaging with the materials we are learning about. This is not all that different from Indigenous ways of knowing. Kurtz (2013) notes Indigenous knowledges spans across cultures, histories, and geographical spaces that are beyond the physical world and are strongly centred in the spiritual. Further, Martin and Mirraboopa highlight that Indigenous ways of knowing are directly related to the entities of “Land, Animals, Plants, Waterways, Skies, Climate and Spiritual systems of Aboriginal [sic] groups” (2003, p. 9). Our ability to learn and reproduce knowledge can happen through various processes, such as: listening, sensing, viewing, reviewing, reading, watching, waiting, observing, exchanging, sharing, conceptualizing, assessing, modelling, engaging, and applying (Martin and Mirraboopa, 2009). Similarly, Battiste articulates Indigenous knowledge as inherently tied to the land; in particular “landscapes, landforms, and biodomes where ceremonies are properly held, stories properly recited, medicines properly gathered, and transfers of knowledge properly authenticated” (2002, p. 13). Indigenous knowledges at their core focus on experience within a time and place, be it through story-telling, ceremony, or physical application (i.e., artwork, picking medicines, hunting, etc). EE similarly involves teaching through knowledge application. With the continued focus of decolonizing the institution, we must look at ways in which we can move learning out of the classroom, at all levels of education, and place it within the realm of experience.
Upon taking my position within the Faculty of Health, there were no other Indigenous faculty. There was also a dearth of courses offered in Indigenous health, with just one master’s level course (Indigeneity & Disability), and until this past September, no undergraduate courses (there is now an Indigenous health course offered by my Nursing colleagues). I was assigned by my Chair to teach Indigeneity & Disability in the fall. This course was created several years ago and had only been offered once previously. My initial reaction was a mix of excitement and dread: I was excited to lead a class with a heavily Indigenous focus at the graduate level, something I never received as a graduate student, but also concerned about the authenticity of a course previously designed by non-Indigenous faculty. This was largely driven by the stories I’d heard from colleagues across the country who started new positions and were given pre-created courses that turned out to be hugely problematic both in their perspectives of Indigenous Peoples and limitations associated with assigning non-Indigenous-written materials. Upon receiving the course outline I was elated to see this was not the case for Indigeneity & Disability, and in fact, I was able to use the vast majority of pre-existing course materials. One major gap in the course outline was its focus on readings, presentations, and essays. This was the totality of the course when I received it, which is not uncommon for a master’s-level course within this disciple. I started by rearranging the course content to bring topics providing context to Indigenous health to the start of the semester, so students develop a baseline understanding of the colonial factors affecting Indigenous narratives of disability. Then I asked myself, how can I Indigenize this course even more? I reflected upon the Teaching Commons presentations on EE and the Instructional Skills Workshop I had recently attended. I decided to link the ideas of EE and Indigenizing together, to create a course that is not only academically rigorous from a western perspective, but also holds true to Indigenous ways of knowing and being.
Part 2 will be published next week.
