The Indigenization of Post Secondary Education
Indigenization of post-secondary education is the practice of acknowledging and redressing the ways in which Indigenous Peoples, their scholarship, history, culture, and ways of knowing have been excluded from or made invisible within post-secondary institutions and post-secondary education.
CUPE has produced a Fact Sheet on how Indigenization needs to take place across the post-secondary sector. Indigenization recognizes that post-secondary institutions, workers, and students all have a significant role to play in reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
CUPE 4207 understands our role as academic contract workers in Calls to Action and Reconciliation. We are committed to learning, understanding and incorporating the Indigenization of Brock University.
At the GMM in Sept 2021, Unit 1 Instructor Tracy Kennedy gave a talk called “CUPE 4207 & the Indigenization of Post-Secondary Education”. Tracy offered her insights and experiences that tackle questions, such as: What role do academic labour unions play in reconciliation with Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit Peoples? How can CUPE 4207 members incorporate Calls to Action into their work practices – lectures, assignments, seminars, lab demonstrations, office spaces and student interactions? Presentation slides can be found HERE.
Additional Resources:
The Circle As Pedagogy Creating Authentic Elder/Youth Engagement
Creating Our Way Forward: Recommendations for Improving Niagara Region Public Health and Emergency Services’ Indigenous Engagement 2019 written by Kelly Fran Davis in collaboration with local Indigenous organizations
GoodMinds.com – First Nations, Inuit, Metis Books
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action
Origins of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy
Students learn Indigenous language using virtual reality, June 18, 2021
Six Nations school launches app that teaches people to speak Mohawk
Resources For CUPE 4207 Members
Indigenization of Post-Secondary Education CUPE National
Indigenizing Academia – Stryker Calvez
Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy – Adam Gaudry and Danielle Lorenz
100 ways to Indigenize and decolonize academic programs and courses – Dr. Shauneen Pete
Resources for Indignizing Higher Education (a collection of links to books, chapters, journal articles and more on initiatives, organization, and research methodology) – Thompson Rivers University Faculty of Education and Social Work
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – Sept 30th, 2021.
Bargaining Language for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation