Strategy: Decolonization and Indigenization

Concordia University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) includes a list of specific strategies for decolonization. Faculty who are not already teaching or working from an Indigenous framework can consider how they incorporate Indigenous content in their courses by attending both institutional and off-campus workshops training on decolonization and Indigeneity, and researching educational resources.

You may find the following areas emphasized in gender and sexuality pedagogical contexts helpful in developing your own teaching approach to decolonizing and indigenizing curriculum:

1. Focusing on Indigenous history and contemporary issues in Indigenous society, culture, politics and knowledge – including local Indigenous communities and their history and contemporary society, culture, politics, and knowledge;
2. Learning about gender and sexuality through Indigenous knowledge systems, traditions, and frameworks;
3. Understanding the relationship between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy;
4. Self-education on how to incorporate relevant and appropriate curriculum and pedagogy in courses that examine the role of Indigenous knowledge systems and settler colonialism by engaging with contemporary research produced by and about Indigenous societies, cultures, and politics and knowledge. Including but not limited to:
   • decolonization;
   • Indigenous resurgence;
   • Indigenous sovereignty;
   • Indigenous cultural production and activism; and
   • Indigenous knowledge systems and traditions (when developed and/or presented by Indigenous communities).

Emphasis should be placed on:

1. Respecting the traditions distinct to Indigenous communities (i.e. not universalizing or generalizing knowledge traditions, systems, practices, or histories);
2. Drawing on knowledge produced by Indigenous scholars, peoples, nations, and communities whenever possible (rather than drawing exclusively on knowledge produced on Indigenous peoples by non-Indigenous scholars); and
3. Prioritizing ongoing and thoughtful engagement with Indigenous peoples, cultures, and histories (rather than tokenizing them, i.e., beyond simply adding an “Indigenous” topic week to a course).

Challenge: Cultural Appropriation & Ethnic Fraud

Debates have emerged about the role of cultural appropriation, self-identification, self-indigenization, and ethnic fraud in post-secondary institutions (Leroux 2019). In many fields, including sexuality studies, a number of scholars and public figures have been at the centre of controversies around accusations of false identity claims and the appropriation of Indigenous cultures, such as non-Indigenous people using the term “Two-Spirit.” Students are often familiar with these debates and have strong views and perspectives in discussing such cases. Further, Indigenous students, staff, faculty, and scholars may be differently positioned institutionally; some might experience these cases as acts of colonization; others may feel their own identity and belonging called into question—especially when considering the legacy of federal assimilationist policies that organized Canada’s relationship to Indigenous peoples through the Indian Act, residential school system, 60s scoop, and child welfare system.

Faculty teaching this material should familiarize themselves with the authors and texts they use as part of preparation for class. This is especially important when faculty choose to use texts by authors who have been publicly named by Indigenous communities as falsely representing their membership, status, or belonging. In these cases, faculty should exercise care and attention to how these texts are introduced in the class by explaining the context around controversies and accusations, explaining why these texts are being used, and facilitating space for difficult discussions in class.

For further discussion on navigating difficult discussions in the classroom, see our section Navigating Difficult Pedagogical Dynamics.

Learning about Violence Enacted on Indigenous Peoples

In many fields, such as social work, history, education, and gender and sexuality studies, learning about Indigenous peoples involves learning about violence. Indigenous students are likely to find themselves in a difficult situation when learning about historic and contemporary violence enacted against Indigenous peoples in classes primarily populated by non-Indigenous students and/or a non-Indigenous professor. In such cases, repeated exposure to Indigenous content as it relates to violence can be harmful to Indigenous students (D’Arcangelis, Gamache, Hrynyk and Lennon 2024). Faculty drawing on this kind of content should consider balancing learning about violence enacted on Indigenous peoples with content that illustrates Indigenous self-determination, governance, culture, and knowledge production.

Resources