Indigenous Studies

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:  

(1) Ntyxtix (action plan, family, community, land) 

• Compare decolonial learning environments and teaching styles to standard colonial teaching and learning methods and teacher-learner relationships. 

• Create personal and educational goals that demonstrate an understanding of the key findings of critical documents such as UNDRIP, DRIPPA, MMIWG and TRC reports. 

•  Construct meaningful ways to promote protective land use and environmental sustainability that utilize Indigenous knowledge 

(2) Skmxist (traditions, practices, key findings, research, priorities)   

• Explain that the word Indigenous is an inclusive term that includes all Indigenous peoples across the globe. Synthesize knowledge of how a pan-Indigenous approach excludes specifics related to Indigenous identity like nsylix issues, languages, knowledges, confederacies historical migrations and struggles, and connections between nsylix Land and peoples. 

• Summarize the modern adaptability of Indigenous people and knowledges in local and international contexts and relationships, including those found in UNDRIP, contemporary allyship, and other struggles for healthy balances, recovery, and innovation from decolonization 

• Comprehend that over thousands of years, Indigenous people have adapted customs, languages, knowledges, social orders, and ethics that all peoples need to learn and adapt to be able to relationally live with each other and the land while also recognizing the challenges posed to this by the current realities of colonial nation-states. 

 (3) Spitlem (relationships and interconnectedness, living in harmony, spiritual) 

• Practice decentering the colonial worldview and honour Indigenization as part of the process of decolonization and reconciliation as part of decolonization which requires a true account of colonial history from a critical Indigenous standpoint.  

• Re-imagine their role as someone living on or visiting a nation that is not their ancestral homeland; considering the importance of learning and understanding nsylix protocol, stories, and the goal of reciprocal relationships. 

• Participate in building and upholding spaces of cultural safety for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples by utilizing Indigenous concepts of respect, responsibility, and culturally appropriate conduct. Make space for traumatic topics, healing, cleansing, and debriefing protocols. This includes giving voice to Indigenous ways of knowing and space for learners to move from a state of not knowing to knowing. 

(4) Siya (vision, innovation, health, wellbeing, creativity) 

• Conceptualize how immersion in colonial education systems has impacted their understanding of Indigenous peoples. 

• Internalize the importance of allyship, partnership, reciprocity, decolonization, Indigenization and reconciliation. 

• Value and continued their commitment to analyzing bias, working and living in partnership with the land and the stewards of the land since time immemorial. 

Program Learning Outcomes (Implicit) 

By observing the work of the instructors and experiencing the program students will implicitly learn about decolonization, Indigenization and reconciliation through the modelling of this work by faculty members. 

Faculty members will: 

• Honour the work of Elders, Knowledge Keepers and Indigenous communities. 

• Actualize processes of reciprocity with community members through relationship building, including offering honorariums and following gift protocols. 

• Value the work of the faculty who creates the space for Indigenization and decolonization to be actualized. 

• Empower students to analyze and confront their biases. 

• Create accountability in the interaction among students, staff, and faculty by way of Indigenizing the program and therefore the University. 

• Demonstrate allyship, accountability, and respect and allow positioning of Indigenous Knowledge Holders where they are most needed. Working locally to bring Indigenous knowledges into colonial spaces for all to engage and learn from.  

• Call on Institutional leaders, faculty, staff and students to recognize that Indigenous Studies provides the groundwork for Indigenization by positioning Indigenous Knowledge Holders and allies within the University. 

• Collaborate among people, and departments, with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and organizations to create an innovative, adaptable, and interdisciplinary environment.  

Major in Indigenous Studies