Strategies, Challenges and Further Resources
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:
- 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;
- Learning about gender and sexuality through Indigenous knowledge systems, traditions, and frameworks;
- Understanding the relationship between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy;
- 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:
- Respecting the traditions distinct to Indigenous communities (i.e. not universalizing or generalizing knowledge traditions, systems, practices, or histories);
- 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
- 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 case