Against the backdrop above, developing practical steps for decolonization will take on dual-pronged approaches throughout the life of a course. At this time, the IRIG has not settled on what form the Indigenization requirement is going to take (One large course? A suite of several courses? A mix of the two?). Thus, given this uncertainty, the dual-pronged approach can only be discussed from 35,000 feet. Below, then, I focus on developing frameworks rather than set-in-stone, specific approaches.

I see three practical approaches to decolonization within the context of an Indigenous requirement: 1. Assignment Design, 2. Course Content Selection, and 3. Appropriate Instruction. I will discuss each of these briefly below.

1. Assignment Design

Assignments enable students to apply theories and content discussed in lecture and in readings. Assignments require active learning through doing. They therefore allow an important way for students to apply the dual-pronged approach to Indigenization discussed above, as they can be used to create space for student reflection on their various roles in Canadian society, as well as that of their communities. The following two examples can be adapted to the College of Arts & Science as a means to promote decolonization through Indigenization:

The Homelands Paper. Developed by Indigenous Studies professors at Trent University, the “Homelands Paper” is a major essay requirement that asks students to consider Indigenous peoples’ presence in the students’ home communities. Many non-Indigenous students begin this exercise assuming that their home community has zero Indigenous peoples, and zero Indigenous history. This, of course, is false, considering that all land in Canada was once solely owned by Indigenous peoples. This assignment is useful in that most, if not all, students return papers in which they express surprise and, sometimes, anger, that their home communities have Indigenous history/presence. Many non-Indigenous students thus find themselves in an intellectually unsettled space - a “teachable moment” that a properly qualified professor can then use to guide deeper understanding about how settler colonial narratives are staged to presume Canadian communities simply propped up in a cultural and political vacuum. In other words, the Homelands Paper provides a counter-narrative to the myth of terra nullius, and recruits students into the starring roles of this investigative drama.

Positionality Papers. “Positionality” refers to locating one’s social location using an intersectional approach. It recognizes that power exists and is distributed unevenly depending on things such as skin colour, sexual orientation, gender assignment, class, etc. For example, I am a cis-gendered, heterosexual, white man who was adopted into an Anishinaabe community in northern Ontario as an infant. Though I grew up on an Indian reserve, my adoption does not dismantle my whiteness, and therefore I carry with me an exceptional amount of unearned privilege that other people in my family do not enjoy due to the way in which Canadian society distributes power to them.

Positionality papers/essays are useful course-based exercises that can develop students’ sense of social location. No classroom is a safe space; for Indigenous students and students of colour, violence is already present in the form of white students resisting knowing themselves as racialized beings (i.e. as white people). Alternatively, racialized violence can also manifest within classroom settings by claims to colourblindness - either on the part of students or the part of professors/instructors. Skin colour matters because the broader Canadian society assigns power to it accordingly. Thus, positionality papers enables students to come to better understand themselves not only as racialized beings, but also the baggage they may carry due to other aspects of their social location. This exercise thus helps classrooms to name things like whiteness, heterosexism, class, etc., not to instil guilt, but to put the baggage on the table so that authentic conversations about Indigenous issues can take place. There is ample research (both pedagogical and theoretical) on the importance of positionality within mixed-race and decolonial learning environments.

The two assignments listed above are not meant to be an exhaustive list.

2. Course Content Selection

The dual-pronged approach to Indigenization will require course content that goes beyond merely learning about Indigenous issues, to include content to provides opportunities for non-Indigenous students to learn about the darker sides of Canada’s settler colonial history. Thus, content can be built into Indigenous Requirement courses that has little to do with Indigenous peoples and Indigenous histories, and rather more to do with the nature of Canadian society itself. For example, being able to define terms such as “settler colonialism,” “whiteness,” and “structural racism” might enable all students to better understand the conditions that have lead to a need for Indigenization in the first place.

Practically, course content will need to include readings, lectures and exercises that names and “pushes back” on topics like settler colonialism, whiteness, etc. The readings and lectures chosen/developed will, of course, depend on whether the Indigenous Requirement is met through a single course offering, a suite of course offerings, or a mix of the two. But for the sake of providing examples, the following resources could be considered for such content:

• Wolfe, Patrick, “Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native,” Journal of Genocide Research 8, no. 4 (2006):387-409,  PDF
• Wolfe, Patrick, Traces of History: Elementary Structures of Race (London: Verso, 2016)
• McIntosh, Peggy, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” accessed April 16, 2017,  PDF
• Blaut, James, The Colonizer’s Model of the World: Geographic Diffusionism and Eurocentric History (New York: The Guilford Press, 1993).3. Appropriate Instruction

3. Appropriate Instruction

Finally, appropriate instruction is imperative for decolonization to work on a practical level. It cannot be stressed enough that having the right person at the front of a classroom will be key when course content and assignments get uncomfortable for some students. However, as Frantz Fanon famously wrote, decolonization will always be a violent event - even when such “violence” is experienced in the form of coming to that one has an ethnicity or that one is the present-day beneficiary of historical and on-going dispossession of Indigenous peoples.

Practically, appropriate instruction will include ensuring instructors or professors have the training to handle discomfort in the classroom, and do not reproduce some of the issues that support colonialism (e.g. taking a colourblind approach to race discussion). Such skills can be taught. If instructors or professors find themselves teaching an Indigenous Requirement course, they may require training in anti-racist education, settler colonial complicity, and on how to ensure Indigenous students are not re-victimized through courses ostensibly meant to promote appreciation for Indigenous peoples.

This point can be further developed once it is clear as to what recommendation the IRIG proposes. It may be easier to ensure professors/instructors leading a large Indigenous Requirement class have said training.