(IND5b) Indigenous-Settler Relations and Decolonization II

This session features presentations addressing issues of Indigenous-settler relations and decolonization. Tags: Indigenous Studies

Organizer: Kerry Bailey, McMaster University and University of Saskatchewan; Chair: Alicia Clifford, McMaster University

Presentations

Jennifer Ma, McMaster University; Maimuna Khan, McMaster University

Cultivating critical relationships and building solidarity among Black, Indigenous, and racialized scholars, activists, and artists through decolonial and anti-racist praxis

Migration has been identified as a priority area for policy responses by both the federal and provincial/territorial governments. Yet, Canadian discourse about immigration and settlement often does not consider the realities of Indigenous peoples even though there is overlap and connection through the experiences of colonization and settlement. Generally, Indigenous peoples and racialized people, particularly racialized migrants who are subject to projects of dispossession, have been displaced, forced from their lands, or have been perceived as an impediment to economic and/or political development. What intersects these experiences of displacement is exclusion resulting from colonialism. While the settlement of racialized migrants on Indigenous lands complexify the ‘overlap’ of their experiences of displacement, we point to the separation of such discourses of dispossession in the public sphere and academia. Particularly, that in doing so, nation-states seek to hide current racist and xenophobic discourse regarding national identity and citizenship (Bauder, 2011; Lawrence and Dua, 2005). In June 2023, a collective of artists, activists, doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, and new and established faculty members gathered for a two-day residency entitled, ‘Building solidarity among BIPOC academics, practitioners, and activists’, at Artscape Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island. Approximately 16 people attended from across Canada. The purpose of the event was to foster relationship building and meaningful dialogue among Black, Indigenous, and racialized people whose work is related to migration in one way or another. The residency was designed not only to facilitate knowledge sharing amongst the participants, but also to advance research and practice development broadly speaking, and to provide tools and resources to communities for engaging in decolonial and anti-racist practices. In this context, the residency had four main objectives: Create an atmosphere conducive to critical and engaged dialogue to discuss decolonial and antiracist approaches to our respective areas of work; Reimagine healing practices through collective resistance; Produce strategies of engagement for academics, practitioners, and activists; Build on current connections with and between participants as well as forge new relationships and networks through the collaborative knowledge production process. This presentation focuses on a critical reflection of our experiences engaging in land-based programming and creating art to build solidarity. We address the question of how participation in decolonial and anti-racist activities contribute to cultivating critical relationships across and between our communities while resisting hierarchical relationships between different ways of knowing and how these ways are framed. While there is a growing body of literature on decolonizing higher education, little is known about how participants articulate those processes in the context of their research and practice. To respond to this dearth, we have each undertaken an autoethnographic reflection where we describe our experiences engaging in a residency that centered decolonial and anti-racist praxis and discourse and examine how it contributed to challenging our ideas about implementing these practices in our work. We will conclude by identifying strategies that students, educators and researchers can utilize to challenge colonialism and racism in academia and the community, shifting to transformative and liberatory experiences.

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Non-presenting authors: Soma Chatterjee, York University; Mary Ma, OCAD University; Yahya El-Lahib, University of Calgary; Nellie Alcaraz, McGill University; Carolyn Tran, University of Regina

Jonathan Kauenhowen, University of Toronto

Right time right place: Mandating Indigenous course content in Canadian higher education

Policy interventions in Canadian institutions of higher education related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action have taken various forms, ranging from structural to the symbolic. In this research, I conduct a case study analysis of a noteworthy example, a university-wide mandatory Indigenous content requirement (ICR) policy at a small undergraduate institution in western Canada. This study is informed by lessons from the sociology of higher education, social movements, and organizations, and seeks to contribute to the literature on diversity and Indigenization policy in Canadian higher education. Drawing upon a discourse analysis of policy documents, grey literature, and senate meeting notes, as well as interviews with faculty, administrators, and students, I examine the organizational features and social environment that enabled this initiative. I also discuss the students’ role throughout this process; both as the driving force behind the proposal, and its principal target. While the research is ongoing, several key themes emerged from the analysis to this point. First, this student driven ICR policy initiative was the beneficiary of a highly receptive administration. Student groups brought forward the proposal as the university was undergoing a change in leadership, dovetailing with one of the pillars of the new administration’s strategic directions plan. Moreover, student leaders and organizers reported a lack of interest over the previous decade when pitching similar policy proposals. Despite enthusiastic support for this policy on the part of the incoming administration, the rollout was complicated by its ambitious timeline. The most daunting challenge to the policy’s success was not public hostility or students bristling at the mandate to complete an Indigenous content course, as initial reactions on social media might have suggested. Instead, the challenge lay with the speed at which this policy was proposed, accepted, and implemented. Over the course of several months, the university had to produce enough course offerings to meet the demand of a brand new, university wide requirement without the requisite infrastructure in place to ensure a smooth rollout. Despite the myriad issues that arose, a determined effort by the university president alongside faculty from two departments allowed them to adapt to deficiencies in relatively short order. Finally, the potential for certain students to become adversarial and disrupt the classroom setting was always a concern for faculty. Based on my conversations with students and faculty, however, no-one reported such an experience. This does not mean that this issue never emerged in any classroom setting, but merely that among my participants, hostility towards Indigenous people or curricular content did not feature in their experience of teaching or taking an ICR. To the contrary, students reported positive learning experiences that filled in gaps of knowledge about their local history and challenged stereotypes and misinformation they were exposed to in their high schools and communities.

Rafael Pellizzer Soares, University of Alberta

Listening-Based Pedagogies: Story-Listening and Other Educational Approaches Attuned to a Critical + Indigenous + Clown Framework

This transparadigmatic study is driven by the guiding curiosity what could a listening-based pedagogy entail? alongside other research questions derived from it. The universe in which this project lives proposes a recognition of more-than-human voices and agency, wondering with(in) phenomena from which data may emerge and glow, and where epistemology emerges concurrently with ontology (knowing, doing, and being are inseparable). I designed this research’s methods upon a Critical + Indigenous + Clown (CIC) theoretical framework in order to create a respectful gathering for welcoming more-than-human affordances, to co-construct relational and reciprocal knowledge, and to promote self- and other-awareness through vulnerability and care. By braiding different perspectives from the CIC framework, I designed guidelines, protocols, encounters, as well as a data analysis path that might support a more creative understanding of listening in academia and schools. The listening approaches selected for this research attend to relationality, silence, holism, culturally responsive practices, critical consciousness, future-oriented perspectives, vulnerability, collaboration, and playfulness. This way, listening becomes crucial in teaching and research practices that work against single stories, stereotypification, domination, oppressive relationships, and other consequences of Western-oriented education. Also, how we listen to and engage with stories in educational environments are also dependent on power dynamics (and related to our endeavor to recognize these unbalanced structures and connections). Thus, this study advocates for the fluidity of knowledge as well as for the impact that varied forms of listening might have on accountable, reciprocal, and equitable relationships, which can support schools to become places where not only space but also power is shared. Dunker and Thebas’ (2019) active + playful listening—which encourages cooperation over competition; Davis’ (1996) hermeneutic listening—which is messy, negotiatory, and intends to defy the taken–for-granted future; and Tupi’s seven types of listening (Werá, 2016)—which resonates with Archibald’s (2008) holistic education—take key roles in both theoretical and methodological frameworks of this study. Regarding methodology, based on the CIC theoretical framework, I assembled three theory-informed listening encounters with five secondary school teachers from Edmonton, AB. These methods and other ethical approaches helped me create space for (self- and other-) contemplation, personal and collective stories, and respectful conversations about listening in a Truth and Reconciliation Education as well as in a Culturally Responsive Education. As one of this study’s conclusion, I argue that due to its fluidity and adaptability, listening is indeed relational and contextual (not inadvertently replicable, though). Listening-based educational practices are certainly something to be shared and learned from one another, but they remain open to be molded to/by each group, context, audience, relationship, and purpose. Furthermore, supported by Critical + Indigenous + Clown theories and practices, Story-listening emerges as both research-creation and pedagogy towards a disruptive, holistic, relational, collaborative, future-oriented, and playful academic/educational environment. In such an environment, reciprocal and fruitful relationships shall flourish, which is indeed crucial for both learning and becoming. In addition, by using story-listening as a teaching approach, teachers feel encouraged to create more opportunities for students’ voices to be heard and respected, which invites learners to bring their cultural knowledge and stories to the classroom. This creates a safe and respectful environment, where children understand that failures and differences are key in a learning process. This study thus aims at supporting an education for the heart, mind, body, and spirit, and at caring for our own vulnerabilities as children care for their favorite toys or as Elders care for their communities. It also endeavours to challenge relations/systems of power and to listen to the multiplicity of other worlds to come.

Kerry Bailey, McMaster University and University of Saskatchewan

Case Study: Pain, Perseverance and Resilience - the cost and benefits of a Canadian Post-Secondary Education

Research has established that anti-Indigenous racism persists within Canadian society. This racism can present through overt, covert, and systemic avenues and has distinct and serious impacts for Indigenous peoples. Within the space of post-secondary education Indigenous students continue to experience barriers to success. These barriers can take multiple forms - whether interpersonal/social or within the academic/classroom sphere. Throughout my time working with Indigenous post-secondary students, many experiences and impacts have been shared. Alongside the negative experiences, many students also express experiences of strength within community, resistance, perseverance and success. There is obvious and persistent drive and a rallying call for justice amongst Indigenous university students. The question that remains is - what can be done from the side of the university (administration and faculty) to increase support, engagement and empowerment for Indigenous students. Their continuous determination and resistance to ongoing colonial powers within the post-secondary environment is admirable. That said, these students should not be required to expend this level of energy and personal sacrifice to achieve their goals of a university degree. To further understanding, rather than combining their perspectives in a more general presentation, I am going to share with you a case-study of one Indigenous student who I interviewed. This student described their circumstance at great lengths. They did not hide from the depth of their experiences and the pain they caused, while simultaneously demonstrating ongoing resilience. This case study exemplifies how systemic racism within Canadian universities persists and potentially de-rails talented and determined young adults seeking higher education. By focusing deeply at this individual level, the shared life-experiences of this Indigenous student will deepen your understandings of the post-secondary environment and where change is necessary. Two of the key areas that will be addressed throughout this discussion are communication and connection. Why is the communication between, and connection with, Indigenous students so lacking from the university side. Discussion of this case study will look at how, during our interview, the Indigenous student outlined how it was the first time that they had felt prepared and safe enough to share their experiences. This was due to necessary time for healing, as well as an going questioning of how could he return to the university to discuss the issues, when it was the university institution itself that had been the source of the wounds. In this one detail, the concerning, systemic issues are already evident. Although this case study discussion will necessarily attend to some very serious experiences and personal truths, they are not to be the sole focus. The pain this individual experienced advises us on how immediate and necessary changes must occur. There is also a deeper learning here about self-empowerment, social justice and critical changes that are required.