IndigenousPresence

Experiencing  and Envisioning Indigenous Knowledges Within Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions from a Education and Social Work Faculty Perspective

• Numbered Treaties operationalized by Indian Act

• Duty to Consult is affirmed• Treaty Land Entitlement process

underway in Sask• Definition of Indian (and who is covered

by Treaty) in flux

Saskatchewan - Land of Living Skies

• Saskatchewan population 1,080,000;

• 17% of population (146,000) Indigenous ancestry (2006);

• Majority of Indigenous populace between 0-18;

• By 2016, 45% of children entering kindergarten Indigenous ancestry;

• By 2045, 50% of population will have Indigenous ancestry;

• 73 First Nations communities (membership 300 - 25000), numerous Métis settlements

• 35% of population reside on-reserve

• Few pre-Confederation treaties• Federal/Provincial Crown is indivisible• Modern-day Treaty processes slowly

formalizing Indigenous-Crown relationships

• Numerous self-Governance models.

British Columbia - Best Place on Earth

• BC population 3,878,000;

• ~3% of population (196,075) Indigenous ancestry (2006);

• 47% of Indigenous populace between 0-25 (vs. 29% non-Aboriginal);

• 26% live on-reserve;

• Urban Aboriginal health and social service programs in many large centres:

• 196 First Nations communities (membership 10 - 5000);

• Several Indigenous groups extirpated.

Research Team• Margaret Kovach, University of Saskatchewan (P.I)• Jeannine Carriere, University of Victoria (C.I)• H. Monty Montgomery, University of Regina (Col)• MJ Barrett, University of Saskatchewan (Col)• Carmen Gilles, University of Saskatchewan

(Graduate Student)

Standard Research Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) 2010-13Proposal Title: Removing the Invisibility Cloak: The impact of professional schools of education and social work on the lives of Aboriginal children and youth through their instructional and curricular choices.

Research Participants• Faculty Members• Social Work, Education• Indigenous, Non-Indigenous

Research Sites• University of Saskatchewan (Education)• University of Regina (Social Work)• University of Victoria (Social Work)• University of British Columbia (Education)

Participants• 16 Participants in total• 10 Social Work, 6 Education• 14 Female, 2 Male• 10 Non-Indigenous, 6 Indigenous• All tenured faculty

What are the meta and mini-narratives that are at work as educators attempt to integrate Indigenous Knowledges into instruction and curriculum within education and social work?

Methodology• Qualitative• Literature Review of General Policy in Social

Work and Education Policy Saskatchewan and B.C by Graduate Students

• Indigenist Principles • Thematic Analysis• Individual Interviews• Conversational Approach with each member of

the team participating in the interviews• Collaborative• Elder Consultation and Guidance

Research Question

In context of engaging Indigenous Knowledges we asked faculty about• Personal Pedagogy• Connection with Aboriginal

Communities• Role as Facilitators • Supports to Students • Resources Required• Institutional Support • Connection with Colleagues• Connections with Respective

Disciplines

In short we asked Faculty to reflect on Indigenous Knowledges in their academic life.

Focus of Sub-Questions

• Indigenous Knowledges as a Presence

• Post-Colonial Context of the Academy and Professional Disciplines

• Relationship between Indigenous Knowledges and Social Justice generally

• Relationship between Indigenous knowledges and Anti-colonialism specifically

• The Significance of Relationships, Intentions, and Actions

Five Key Themes:

LodgeIndigenous Knowledges

SnowAcademy and Discipline

(Context)

Path The inextricable relationship with Social Justice generally

FireThe significance of Anti-colonial Work specific to

Indigenous People

SmokeThe Intentions, Relationships,

and Movement

Lodge - Indigenous Knowledges

Themes– Different levels of understanding ,

relationship, and experience with Indigenous Knowledges. Embodied and performative, familial-shaped, community-shaped, complicated/not complicated.

– Values situated discourse. Reference to Indigenous Knowledges within a discussion of respect, reciprocity, protocol, purpose, intention.

– Place-based understandings. Indigenous Knowledges as connected to place as land, water, and community.

– Historical evolution. Indigenous Knowledge culture in the academy over a period of time.

– Relationship with Indigenous Knowledges including role and responsibility. What do I know? What should I do? What can I do? What do I want to do?

“…I don’t know if Indigenous Knowledge is a specific kind of thing. I move away from that. I mean, I know there is particular kinds of histories and protocols and traditions that are Indigenous. But to me, whatever I do – research, teaching – is motivated by my Indigenous history, experience, life. So I don’t mark it out as this kind of thing over here. It’s what I live and breathe and it’s who I am.”

“Your connections with the land, your connection with other people, and moving up from there, so that basic concept I think is core in Indigenous Knowledges. Have that respect and acknowledgement at the beginning.”

“There’s something about just being there, being there, being there, but not just for a long time, but when they want, and not between nine and five, but being there”

Snow - Academic & Disciplinary Context

Themes– Indigenous Flag Bearers. Experience of

Indigenous peoples and the the multiple roles they play. Oscapawace (Helper), Go-betweens, Conduits.

– Commodification and Double Duty. Tokenism. Public relations project. Overwork, community expectations.

– Support Required. Finding Balance. Recognition and Acknowledgement of demands of community. Service is defined as presence in community in a variety of ways.

– Organizational Culture. Orthodoxy, active exclusion, individualism, exploitation encouraged. As one participant stated “the University talks about equity and diversity but really the boardroom looks no different than the Donald Trump boardroom.”

“I would argue that for the most part the profession has been impermeable to the critiques… We’re really good at internal, you know, we get some criticism and we do a little internal tweaking but the mission never changes, the fundamental

mission doesn’t change”.

“I ended up here and I didn’t realize being here would take me away … from Indigenous programs,

and people.” “… the structure of the University is hostile in many ways. I mean they leave their community behind. I think the level of alienation and distress that this place creates for Indigenous students is stunning.”

 “I can’t see how you can keep your energy to do it because the rewards for doing it are different. It’s on a different merit system than the university has. And so trying to put them together is sometimes like trying to put restorative justice in a regular criminal system. You have to blow one up to have the other one work.”

Path - Social Justice

Themes– Critical Consciousness Generally. Critical thinking, anti-oppression, power, “What is

justice?”– Social Justice and Equity Orientation in Teaching. Pedagogy, content, assignments

that go beyond teaching the status quo.– Social Justice Orientation in Research and Scholarship. Use of Social Justice

research and scholarship as a way into thinking about IK. Research with marginalized peoples, research that focuses on unpacking whiteness.

– Relationship with Community and Discipline. Connections between a social justice approach within the scholarly community/discipline and the ability to consider IK.

Fire - Anti-colonialism, Decolonization

Themes– Self and Identity as Anti-colonial.

How individuals see themselves as disrupting or being contrained by normative processes. Making conscious efforts not to problematize Indigenous peoples.

– Anti-colonial Teaching. Facing student resistance; the painful work of decolonizing classrooms; white resistance; deconstructing one’s own eurocentric pedagogies.

– Ally Positioning. Creating space. Recognizing disparities. Assisting.

– Anti-colonialism within Discipline. Acknowledging colonialism happened. Respecting Indigenous people and presence.

“...because for a non-Indigenous person going in to grounds as an ally, its sensitive work personally for me, and it’s also work I don’t want to fuck up and so I need feedback.”

“Like Fanon says it in his ‘Wretched of the Earth’. He says no amount of us showing our cultural treasures to the colonist is going to impress them. I mean that’s sort of like trying to convince them of our humanity. And sometimes I find like that’s the position that Indigenous people often get placed in. It’s to convince non-Native people that we’re human beings. Because that’s the degree to which we’ve been dehumanized.”

“…the thing that I struggle with is that I really really, really want every student to understand the history of First Peoples in Canada and understand the incredible sense of shame and guilt and blame that my profession deserves because of being complicit in all of those experiences.”

Smoke - Choices, Relationships, and Movement

Themes– Choosing to Integrate IK into

Teaching. Hesitancies and choices about personal action.

– Teaching Relationships. Thoughts on teaching Indigenous, non-Indigenous and mixed classrooms. Considering extra efforts demanded.

– Collegial Relationships. Politics of surviving Academia (non-Indigenous champions, duck and cover, tensions)

– Community Relationships. Connecting with & sustaining relationship with community.

– Self-in-relation to it all. Personal Knowledge, opportunities for connection,challenges.

“It’s to be an ally but it’s still keeping our distance, being an ally from a distance, the heart distance, and the head distance, it’s really complicated... I just don’t feel like I deserve to be in the centre. I would love to teach in the Indigenous specialization but I just don’t feel like I deserve that.”

“ I was talking to a friend of mine who’s an Indigenous scholar and I was saying ‘I have tenure, now I can start raising hell.’ And she said ‘Well but will you?’ She said ‘You know what my supervisor told me? Once you get tenure you’re so socialized to be compliant, that you won’t.’ I went home and cried and thought ‘Okay.’ I

thought that I actually want to start raising some hell.”

“…like it’s every year going in and knowing that you’re starting from the very beginning again. You kind of wish people were coming with a little more knowledge... it’s exhausting and it’s to try to look at the bigger picture that you’re creating space to learn, but at the same time there are so many

people that have no idea.”

Preliminary RecommendationsThese are in no particular order. Recommendations ought to be contextualized to departmental (local), mid and highest levels of administration.

– Examine Motivations. Why does an Indigenous presence matter? Examine both understanding of IK and the multi-layered, often disparate, motivations for engaging Indigenous Knowledges

– Capacity. Recognize and respond to capacity issues (i.e. limited Indigenous bodies). Know the capacity of allies.

– Resist Exploiting the Existing Capacity. Be conscious of where exploitation is occurring and why. Plan to rectify.

– Commit - and show evidence of commitment - to Indigenous presence. In physical spaces to intellectual, ceremonial, relational, pedagogical, and embodied presence.

– Formalize. Through policy on curriculum, human resources (i.e. equity hiring), evaluation (tenure) to keep an Indigenous presence included.

– Organizational Assessments. IK in the academy isn’t new. What has changed, what hasn’t, where does change stall. Why? What can be done?

– Acknowledge Hostilities but Don’t Get Stuck in Them. There is a history of distrust, contradictions, ambiguities, tensions, inconsistencies. There is also a history of allegiances and friendships.

– Resist the ad hoc/One Off approach: Formally find concrete ways to show that incorporating Indigenous Knowledges in academia or discipline is not a project to be ‘done’ but rather a relationship to be nurtured.

Preliminary Recommendations

“I believe that you can’t bring in anything like Indigenous ways of knowing and thinking and believing or animating - any of that - until people have an idea or an understanding about what it is and why it is that we even have to ask the question - what is Indigenous knowledge?”

“So I think it’s having a positive attitude and persistence. Like I said I’ve been here well over thirty years and so I’ve seen the days, the days when we weren’t really visible to now where our programs, and various ones are known, being supported in some ways.”

There is no Magical Finding or solution that will get us there.