What is Colonization?
Colonization’s impact is worldwide, and manifests in different ways in different locations and contexts. In what is now known as Canada, simply described, colonization occurred when settlers migrated to North America and acquired Indigenous lands and resources through violence and control (Wilson, 2018, 37; John, 2019, 52).
In Decolonizing and Indigenizing Education in Canada, author and co-editor Sheila Cote-Meek illustrates the role settler education played in colonization:
…colonization advanced from the East to the West coast of Canada through active appropriation of lands justified through the denigration of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous Peoples. It is well documented that in order for the colonial project to continue to advance, Indigenous Peoples were reduced as inferior and subordinate (2020, p. xiv).
This devaluing of Indigenous knowledges [in Canadian Residential schools] was an intentional act to disrupt our ways of knowing and ways of being and to sever the transmission to the next generation. There is no doubt that educational institutions are still very much colonial institutions with deeply held convictions about what constitutes education, research, and pedagogy (2020, p. xv).
As educators today, we witness and perpetuate acts of colonial control and epistemic racism in our knowledge and research systems. These include the library structures of description and categorization; academic peer-review and publication processes; citation styles; the defining, teaching, and requiring of “legitimate” scholarly resources; capitalist publication systems and cost-prohibitive texts; and tenure-track promotion systems. Each of these items significantly impacts how knowledge is defined, shared, and valued.
Learn more:
The Politics of Citation: Is the Peer-review Process Biased Against Indigenous Academics?
CBC Radio, Unreserved. Host Rosanna Deerchild speaks with Dr. Sarah Hunt (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte (Potawatomi Nation) about “citational politics” and discrimination in the peer-review process. These knowledge gatekeeping strategies include who scholars cite, how scholars cite, and what sources are considered authoritative to cite can validate and legitimize knowledge or oppress knowledge. Frequently, Indigenous ways of knowing (oral teachings and histories in particular) are delegitimized in academia by citational politics.
What is decolonization?
There is much debate about the definition and scope of decolonization (Crilly and Everett, 2022, Chapter 1). For the purposes of this toolkit, we have used the Camosun Library’s definition:
Decolonization is an ongoing process that involves acknowledging, questioning, and undoing colonial practices. …decolonization needs to be intersectional in nature as it impacts individuals and communities differently in complex and layered ways – this includes ethnicity, sex, gender, class, ability, religion, and many other aspects (Camosun Library, 2024)
The complex task of decolonization can seem expansive and insurmountable. Decolonizing demands educators critically recognize the impacts and inequities resulting from colonization (Styres, 2019, 32). These inequities manifest as white privilege, socio-economic disparities, lack of access to resources including education, ableism, ageism, structural racism, and other forms of discrimination. In addition, educators must acknowledge the colonial aspects of their own practices that have become normalized and might seem invisible or natural to them.
In the Pulling Together: Foundations Guide, Kory Wilson provides the guidance that “decolonization requires an understanding of Indigenous history and acceptance and acknowledgement of the truth and consequences of that history. The process of decolonization must include non-Indigenous people and Indigenous Peoples working toward a future that includes all” (Wilson, 2018, p. 73).
Jared Qwustenuxun Williams
What is Indigenization?
Camosun College defines Indigenization as “the process by which Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing and relating are incorporated into educational, organizational, cultural and social structures of the institution” (Camosun College, n.d.). In the context of post-secondary, Indigenization and decolonization operate together to challenge Euro-centric, capitalist, racist, ableist, hetero-normative, and patriarchal systems through embedding and scaffolding Indigenous Knowledge into curriculum and pedagogy. Within the context of Canada’s education system and its colonial legacy, implementing Indigenization is of the utmost importance, and works hand-in-hand with decolonization and anti-racism.
In British Columbia, The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (Declaration Act) was passed by the Legislative Assembly in 2019. Developed with Indigenous leaders and legal experts, the Declaration Act adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and serves as BC’s framework for reconciliation. Accompanying the Act is the 2022-2027 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan. The Action Plan highlights the fundamental role anti-racism plays in addressing “Indigenous-specific racism… within our systems, practices, and policies.” (Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, n.d., p. 4). Implementing the plan “will require understanding and targeting the root causes of systemic discrimination, our colonial and racist foundations, and committing to take action to create conditions of greater inclusion, equality and justice” (Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, n.d., p. 4). Every educator can contribute to achieve these goals.
Some non-Indigenous educators may be concerned about whether it is appropriate for them to “do” Indigenization or decolonization. They wonder if they have the expertise or authority to contribute to conversations about decolonization and Indigenization. In response to these uncertainties, it is important for non-Indigenous educators to consider:
- When only Indigenous people contribute to this work, an undue burden is placed on the workloads of Indigenous educators. This includes significant emotional labour (Cote-Meek and Moeke-Pickering, 2023, 7-8; Hobenshield, 2020, 103).
- The more educators who contribute to decolonization through conversation, collective action, and tangible change, the more equitable educational institutions and systems can become (Cote-Meek, 2020, xv).
- All Canadian educators have an ongoing professional responsibility to make change in support of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action (Wilson, 2018, 73). This responsibility includes the acknowledgement of the painful truths of Canadian history, including injustice and genocide, colonial power and privilege (Cote-Meet, 2020, xiiii- xviii; Styres, 2019, 30-31).
“The process of decolonization is a process of healing and moving away from a place of anger, loss, and grief toward a place where Indigenous Peoples can thrive” (Wilson, 2018, p. 74).