Stories from Inside the Circle: Embodied Indigeneity and Resurgent Practice in Post-secondary Institutions
Date
2022-11-01
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Abstract
The call for reconciliation through education (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015a) has compelled public post-secondary institutions in Canada to engage in meaningful and sustainable acts of reconciliation through systemic transformation. While the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2015a) has brought to the forefront the urgency for reconciliation, individual and collective acts of decolonization and indigenization have been unfolding in the small corners and shadows of public post-secondary institutions in Canada since the early 1970s (Pidgeon et al., 2014; Pidgeon, 2014). For decades, Indigenous student service centres have had a visible presence in public post-secondary institutions across Canada, symbolizing a cultural touchstone for Indigenous students and serving as long-standing beacons of welcome for Indigenous community members. Indigenous leaders and associated staff of the centres have been actively engaged in the decolonization and indigenization of public post-secondary institutions in Canada as a distinct community of practice, laying much of the initial groundwork for transformative reconciliation in higher education.
Through the storied experience of nine Indigenous leaders of the centre, this study offers insight into their role, experiences, and perspectives on decolonization and indigenization unfolding in public post-secondary institutions across Canada, now responsive to the call for reconciliation through education (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015a). This research study is concerned with how Indigeneity as embodied presence (Meyer, 2008) gives rise to a cultural resurgent practice (Burrows & Tully, 2018; Simpson, 2017) in a neocolonial educational system poised for transformative reconciliation (Burrows & Tully, 2018). The study employs an Indigenous storytelling methodology (Kovach, 2009) reliant on the seven principles of storywork (Archibald, 2008) as an ethical framework for gathering stories, and Indigenous métissage (Donald, 2012) as a thematic analytical framework for making meaning. The study is further informed by theoretical concepts of trans-systemic space, pedagogy, and practice (Battiste, 2013; Battiste & Henderson, 2021, Henderson, 2009; Styres, 2017), the ethical space of engagement (Ermine, 2007) and ethical relationality (Donald, 2016).
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Indigenous Post-secondary Education in Canada, Indigenous Student Services, Indigenous Storytelling Methodology, Indigenous Epistemology, Indigenous Métissage, Indigenization and Decolonization in Higher Education, Reconciliation through Education, Cultural Resurgent Practice, Indigeneity as Embodied Presence, Indigeneity, Trans-systemic space, pedagogy, and practice, Indigenous Storywork, Indigenist Praxis, Indigenous Community of Practice, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Ethical Relationality, Colonization, Impact of Residential Schools, Transformative Reconciliation, Métis Identity, Métis onto-epistemology
Citation
Cunningham, S. M. (2022). Stories from Inside the Circle: Embodied Indigeneity and Resurgent Practice in Post-secondary Institutions (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.