Settlers unsettled: using field schools and digital stories to transform geographies of ignorance about Indigenous peoples in Canada

Abstract

Geography is a product of colonial processes, and in Canada, the exclusion from educational curricula of Indigenous worldviews and their lived realities has produced “geographies of ignorance”. Transformative learning is an approach geographers can use to initiate changes in non-Indigenous student attitudes about Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies. This study explores non-Indigenous student perspectives concerning a field school and digital storytelling as transformative experiences within the context of an “Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental Management” course; they were asked to reflect on their course experience. Findings indicate that students found both to be effective and important steps in the transformation of their own worldviews.

Keywords::

• Indigenous–settler relations in Canada
• resource and environmental management
• transformative learning
• experiential education
• digital storytelling
• Idle No More

Acknowledgements

We wish to extend our sincere thanks to the participants who agreed to share their perspectives and their digital stories for this study. Our deep appreciation is also extended to all those with whom we interacted with and learned from during the field school, from Mi'kmaq Lawyers to Mi'kmaq Chiefs, Mi'kmaq Elders, Treaty Negotiators, Traditional Knowledge Holders, Mi'kmaq Natural Resource Managers, Mi'kmaq Sweat Lodge Keepers, and Mi'kmaq Eel Fishers – and many more – especially Maliseet Knowledge-Holder, Mr. Ken Paul. We could not do this field school without you. Thank you.

Notes

^1. Order of authorship is alphabetical given the equivalent contributions of each member of the team

^2. Settler refers to non-Indigenous peoples whose ancestors, or themselves, have immigrated to Canada to inhabit Indigenous territories and subsequently dispossess Indigenous peoples.

^3. For a rich discussion of this concept, see Godlewska et al.'s (2010) paper; the idea of a “geography of ignorance” rather than a “history of ignorance” is used in this context because this is not an issue of the past, it is an ongoing problem plaguing Indigenous–settler relations in Canada.

^4. Indigenous scholar Castellano (2000) characterizes Indigenous Knowledge in the following way: oral, experiential, holistic, personal, and based within a storied or metaphoric language (Hart, 2010), to describe this way of knowing. While succinct definitions for Indigenous Knowledge do exist in the literature, the choice to describe, versus define, is done so here to offset efforts that attempt to compare epistemologies of which there are no grounds for such evaluation (McGregor, 2004). Indigenous scholars, Battiste and Youngblood Henderson (2000) and Hart (2010) suggest that those who are not Indigenous Knowledge-holders focus on grasping the process of understanding, rather than attempts at delineating, an exercise that encourages recognition of differential realties.

^5. During preparation of this manuscript, permission was sought from the participants to post their digital stories on the first author's academic website. The digital stories of those who granted permission can be viewed at http://sres.management.dal.ca/People/Professors/Castleden.php.

^6. The professor sought feedback from the students about the 3-day workshop; they indicated a strong desire to hold the day 1 story circle at least one week in advance of the workshop to give them more time to refine their ideas, revise their stories based on the group's feedback, and gather the audio and visual resources they wanted for their evolving stories. In a subsequent year, the professor incorporated this feedback in the course schedule and students seemed much more relaxed with respect to what they needed to accomplish in the three-day workshop.

^7. In an era of administrative “austerity” measures with respect to university budgets on campuses across Canada, which is prompting many to deliver massive open online courses (MOOCs), this field school consistently requires justification within its administrative unit to proceed given its small size (a minimum of 6 students must register for the course to proceed [read “break-even”] and a maximum of 12 students can enroll [read “manage logistically”]) and high costs, which are wholly borne by students).

^8. The third author completed this course, however, given her role on the research team, she was excluded as a participant to limit potential bias (Briggs, 2003), instead the interview guide was pilot-tested on her, and subsequently revised (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

^9. Indigenous peoples continue to encounter discrimination and racism in Canada; as a result, studies have found that some choose to hide their identity avoid such encounters (see, e.g., Berry, 1999; Canales, 2004; Castleden, Crooks, Hanlon, & Schuurman, 2010).

^10. Sharing circles involve turn-taking that is often formalized with ceremony (e.g., smudging with sacred medicines or the use of sacred talking stick or stone) and hold sacred meaning for many Indigenous peoples and their allies in terms of spiritual and emotional growth (Lavallee, 2009). The experience involves sharing of one's whole self, not just knowledge-sharing and those in the circle are expected to exhibit respectful listening and nonjudgmental, helpful, and supportive discourse (Lavallee, 2009).

^11. See Hickling Hudson and Mayo's (2012) Editorial Introduction for reference to “unlearning” colonial stereotypes and ideologies.