Indigenizing Work as “willful work”: Toward Indigenous Transgressive Leadership in Canadian Universities

Abstract

As Indigenous peoples employed at a university who are working to Indigenize it from within, in this article, we share our experiences, discuss some of our challenges, and show how we draw meaning and strength from Indigenous stories to ground us in our approach. We use Indigenous, anti-oppressive, anti-racist and decolonizing theories, Indigenous standpoints, embodied experiences, and emotive responses to make explicit the lived work realities of Indigenous people in mainstream universities. Through a dialogic approach, we trace one pathway for explicating Indigenous transgressive leadership in Canadian universities. In our discussion, we situate Indigenizing work as "willful work" (Ahmed, 2014). We call for a "strategic willfulness" as a constructive orientation, for Indigenous leaders to embrace, as we continue to confront the colonial, hetero-patriarchal and whitestream nature of Canadian universities. Most importantly, we underscore the need for Indigenous leaders involved in Indigenizing work in the university to draw from Indigenous epistemological and relational ethics in their leadership work, and to be strategically willful, interruptive and transgressive.

Thematic Analysis of Indigenous Students’ Experiences with Indigenization at a Canadian Post-secondary Institution: Paradoxes, Potential, and Moving Forward Together

“…Participant exhaustion due to engagement with Indigenization was common and connected to involvement on multiple institutional committees, and the physical, emotional, and psychological work required, including the pressure of being the "voice" of Indigenous students. This aligns with many other Indigenous scholars' experiences of Indigenization overwork (Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020;Grafton & Melançon, 2020;Lavallee, 2020). Although two participants were paid for their time on one research project investigating Indigenous education techniques, positions in many Indigenous student groups are unpaid, and these students are regularly called upon to sit on committees and otherwise be involved in unpaid (volunteer) Indigenization work.…”

“…Indigenization at Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions Though Indigenization efforts have been underway for many years (Kuokkanen, 2008;Lavallee, 2020;Mihesuah & Wilson, 2004), they have expanded rapidly in recent years as Canadian post-secondary institutions work to respond to the TRC's calls to action via Indigenization (Bédard, 2018;Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020;Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018). There is no consensus on the definition of Indigenization in post-secondary institutions (Bédard, 2018;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020).…”

“…There is no consensus on the definition of Indigenization in post-secondary institutions (Bédard, 2018;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020). Many researchers describe Indigenization as a process of embedding Indigenous ways of knowing and being within post-secondary systems as well as increasing the number of and success of Indigenous people in post-secondary contexts (Bédard, 2018;Blair et al, 2020;Bopp et al, 2017;Canadian Association of University Teachers, 2016;Compton, 2016;Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018;Efimoff, 2019;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020;FitzMaurice, 2011;Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018;Kinzel, 2020;Newhouse, 2016;Ottmann, 2013;Pidgeon, 2014;Pidgeon, 2016;Poitras Pratt et al, 2018). Some descriptions of Indigenization call for radical paradigm shifts to achieve such goals (e.g., Blair et al, 2020).…”

“…Importantly, Indigenous Peoples must be at the head of these initiatives, as without Indigenous knowledges, one cannot Indigenize (Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018;Grafton & Melançon, 2020;Ottmann, 2013). Many researchers describe Indigenization as deeply interconnected with decolonization 1 (Blair et al, 2020;Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018;Fellner, 2018;Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018;George, 2019;Grafton & Melançon, 2020;Madden & Glanfield, 2019;Mihesuah & Wilson, 2004;Ottmann, 2013). Some examples of Indigenization at Canadian universities include providing Indigenous-specific scholarships, offering programs to transition incoming Indigenous students into university life, creating Indigenous course content requirements, hosting Indigenous events, or creating Indigenous hiring strategies (University of Calgary, n.d.; University of Manitoba, n.d.; University of Saskatchewan, n.d.a; University of Winnipeg, n.d.; Vancouver Island University, n.d.).…”

“…Most published work on Indigenization shares the valuable experiences and observations of Indigenous people involved with Canadian post-secondary Indigenization processes (Bédard, 2018;Brulé & Koleszar-Green, 2018;Cote-Meek & Moeke-Pickering, 2020;Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018;Downey, 2018;Fellner, 2018;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020;George, 2019;Hewitt, 2016;Johnson, 2016;Lavallee, 2020;Louie et al, 2017;Ottmann, 2013;Pete, 2015). Many Indigenous authors involved in Indigenization express feeling frustrated at seemingly ineffective or tokenistic institutional Indigenization processes, such as adding Indigenous art to physical spaces (Lavallee, 2020), being treated as a token Indigenous person at events or in projects (Bédard, 2018;Lavallee, 2020), a lack of system change (Gaudry & Lorenz, 2018), pressure to conform to Eurocentric educational norms (Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018), or the expectation that Indigenous peoples in post-secondary institutions will do Indigenization work (Debassige & Brunette-Debassige, 2018;Fiola & MacKinnon, 2020;Grafton & Melançon, 2020;Lavallee, 2020). Though Indigenization efforts can undoubtedly help Indigenous people at post-secondary institutions (Bédard, 2018;Lavallee, 2020), Indigenous peoples' experiences with Indigenization highlight its shortfalls.…”