Navigating Colonial Space: A Case Study of an Indigenous Student-Led Decolonial Movement in Canadian Higher Education

Abstract

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada widely shared its Reports and Calls to Action regarding the "Indian Residential School System" in 2015. Since that time, higher education institutions across Canada have been engaged in diverse institutional reform efforts. This article is a case study of an Indigenous student-led reform initiative at The University of Winnipeg that resulted in the first mandatory Indigenous course requirement as a graduation requirement for all undergraduate students in Canada. The research is designed and conducted with Indigenous leadership and partnership and relies on the insights of Indigenous students that led the initiative to consider the impetus, nature, and strategies underlying this curricular reform. Three emergent themes were discerned that are important to systemic reform in postsecondary education: the university as colonial space; navigation of white Settler dominance; and timing as significant to systemic change. The study can be seen as a unique example of the complexity, opportunities, and limitations of decolonial reform in higher education through an Indigenous student-led social movement embodying contentious co-governance and prefiguration.

Alluvial Zones of Decolonizing Internationalization of Higher Education

“…With the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2016, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Report (TRC) and Calls to Action affirmed in 2016, and the ongoing discoveries of unmarked graves at Indian Residential Schools across Canada since 2021, a growing number of universities across Canada are engaging in various institutional reforms in response to the TRC report. However, they have not widely engaged with decolonizing processes needed to challenge the colonial structures in higher education (Kerr et al, 2022). Not only do Canadian post-secondary institutions struggle to engage with Indigenous communities and Education, 2023, 18(2), pp.…”

Ngā Manu ā Tāne – the stories of Māori doctoral students in Aotearoa: An ethnographic study

“…In recent years, challenges for universities to address systemic inequities and institutional racism have led to student-led campaigns and movements around the globe as well as in Aotearoa (McAllister et al, 2019). The University of Winnipeg was one of the first higher education institutions in Canada to create mandatory Indigenous course requirement for all undergraduates to graduate (Kerr et al, 2022).…”

“…What is not widely published is the outcome of this resistance movement was due to the efforts of Indigenous student leaders (Kerr et al, 2022). Other student-led campaigns with catchy titles like "Why is my Curriculum White?"…”