Abstract:
Research Context:
We are a collaborative group of Indigenous scholars from Western Canada who are inspired, unified, and guided by our shared commitments to honour the wisdom traditions of our ancestors and show their relevance to the field of education today.
Theoretical Framing:
A central contention that guides this workshop is that colonial ideologies remain mostly uninterrogated in Canadian educational contexts and continue to be ‘in the way’ of meaningful Indigenous-Canadian relational renewal. The founding principle of colonialism is relationship denial and the centuries-long predominance of this principle has resulted in the creation of educational practices that perpetuate relationship denial in mostly subtle and unquestioned ways. When someone is educated to accept relationship denial as a way of being in the world, it becomes part of how they are as a human being – how they live – and this acceptance has a very distinctive bearing on how they understand knowledge and knowing. The field of education has become so fully informed by the assumed correctness of colonial worldview that it has become very difficult to take seriously other knowledge systems or ways of being human. Our experience as researchers has demonstrated to us that Indigenous wisdom traditions can help to repair relationships that have been denied and renew them on more ethical and compassionate terms.
The Research:
We will share insights gained from working with practicing teachers at four different research sights who were asked to engage in topobiographical practices through the creation of countermaps that express how they have come to understand Indigenous-Canadian relations. We will also provide some examples of a new walking vodcast series.
Educational Significance
Researchers living and working in Canada have become increasingly interested in the possible contributions that Indigenous wisdom teachings can make to perceptions of knowledge and knowing in the field of education. Even though important contributions have been made, we note that the lingering influence of colonial logics remains evident in institutional practices, most notably seen in the tendency to champion Indigenous initiatives using the metaphoric grammar of decolonization, indigenization, or reconciliation. This workshop will attend to the significance of unacknowledged Indigenous wisdom teachings and show their relevance and applicability to the task of reimagining teacher education through practices of relational renewal.