How Alberta Education’s First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Policy Framework influence students attitudes towards the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.

For decades, Indigenous education in Canada has implemented policies that provide a more culturally relevant curriculum for Indigenous students. It is thought that such a curriculum will improve morale and academic success in Indigenous students. Despite these efforts, a gap still exists between Indigenous students and their counterparts. Little attention has been given to the role that race and racism plays in the lives of Indigenous students. This study examines whether a need exists for race and racism to be addressed in the public school system. Using an Indigenous research methodology, a survey was administered to elicit non-Indigenous attitudes towards the Indigenous peoples of Canada. It was found that in the absence of an antiracist education, nonIndigenous students held negative perceptions of Indigenous peoples, as well as lacked an understanding of racism and its significance.

Hegemonic Discourses of Métis Identity in British Columbia, Canada

Viewing Métis identity not as a natural, essential, or fixed phenomenon, but as an experience formed through internal and external factors, this article examines the mechanisms by which people residing in British Columbia identify as Métis. Through interviewing Métis Peoples and engaging in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Narrative Analysis (NA), this research demonstrates how Métis narratives centre on and replicate three hegemonic discourses based on racial mixedness, Métis cultural values, and Métis nationalism. The ‘Métis subject’ is then not an easily described coherent subject, but rather a co-constructed description based on transient identification with multiple and sometimes contradictory texts, which are themselves made meaningful through discourses. Understanding ‘Métis’ in this way allows for an exploration of the role of power in producing meanings of ‘Métis’ and how individuals, groups, and institutions can strategically mobilize particular meanings and resist definitions of Métis prescribed by Eurocentric perspectives embedded in colonial institutions.

Indigenous Backstage Pass

In her poem "from turtle island to aotearoa," Anishinaabeg writer Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm writes about travelling to the other side of the world and finding ways to connect. For my part, I have taken the ‘reverse’ journey many times from Aotearoa to Turtle Island, and the poem has both nudged and nurtured my thinking about the promises and limits of Indigenous-Indigenous connections. In Indigenous Studies, we have made really important claims about the need to research our own people, and the limits of work conducted by outsiders. In this article, I reflect on the conundrum of being an Indigenous outsider in much of my current research project in which I, as a Māori scholar, engage the works of Māori writers alongside Indigenous writings from Australia, Fiji and Hawai'i. How does working in Indigenous Studies as a discipline shape my approach to researching others? Does being an Indigenous researcher give me a backstage pass?

‘A constant reminder of what we had to forfeit’

This article examines the intergenerational effects of hydropower expansion on Sámi living conditions. In-depth conversations were conducted with five research participants from three different generations living in a hydropower impacted area on the Swedish side of Sápmi. The aim is to analyse how natural resource extraction has affected living conditions for the Indigenous Sámi people, using an intergenerational approach. The questions cover how to deal with the consequences and how coping strategies have affected the living conditions for the research participants and the participants’ families: older and younger generations. Historical unresolved grief connected to large-scale resource extraction is an important component for understanding experiences of colonialism in a Nordic Indigenous context. Furthermore, an intergenerational approach is essential for studying long-term impacts on Indigenous communities. From the conversations, four main themes are crystallized: bereavement, fear and worries, agreements with the energy company, and reconciliation and strategies for the future.

(Not) Forgotten

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Franklin/Hiawatha encampment was established in the summer of 2018 only to be forcibly terminated during the winter of 2019, then revived again in 2020. Also called the “Wall of Forgotten Natives” by its inhabitants, this cluster of tents was comprised of houseless residents of the Twin Cities, many of whom were Native American. Recognizing the continued murder, dispossession, removal, forced assimilation, under-resourcing, and invisibility of Indigenous peoples, the moniker “Wall of Forgotten Natives” seems apt. Considering Agamben’s idea of the camp as a space of exclusion that is included within the purview of law, this essay argues that the camp is also a designation of what is forgotten, or what is excluded from settler memory, yet paradoxically included within the settler prerogative of elimination.

Kei tua o te awe māpara/Beyond the mask: Māori language teaching in English-medium secondary schools in New Zealand

The New Zealand Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Education, 1993, p. 14) states that "[all] who learn te reo Māori help to secure its future as a living, dynamic, and rich language". However, I will argue here that appearance and reality are very far apart. Close examination of the context in which teachers of the Māori language operate tells a very different story, one characterised byinadequate consultation with teachers and communities, a lack of consistency between the advice provided in the curriculum guidelines document and the resources made available to teachers, and a failure to ensure that adequate pre- and inservice training is provided. Finally, as a way forward to help strengthen policy and inform Indigenous language teachers, a reflection onlessons learnt in the New Zealand context and some useful Indigenous language strategies will be provided.

Māori perspectives on alcohol

ABSTRACTAimMāori suffer disproportionately from alcohol-related harm in Aotearoa New Zealand. With the view toward informing potential alcohol interventions for Māori, this study synthesises studies on alcohol and alcohol-related harm. MethodsUsing a Māori-centered approach, a narrative review of qualitative studies of Māori perspectives on alcohol was conducted. Journal databases, repositories, and websites were searched for relevant studies published since 2000. A thematic analysis was conducted and emergent themes were synthesised. ResultsEight studies were identified for inclusion. Whanaungatanga was identified as a contributor to alcohol use in included studies. Other motivations were ‘fitting in’, escape from stress, achieving ‘the buzz’, and coping with historical trauma. Among included literature, a strong cultural identity was a deterrent to alcohol overuse. Māori voiced a desire to be involved with local alcohol policy decisions. ConclusionAlthough Māori are a high-priority group, there remains a substantial gap in research on Māori perspectives toward alcohol interventions which is reflective of an underinvestment in Kaupapa Māori research. Future interventions for Māori may be more effective if these interventions focus on enhancing whanaungatanga without the presence of alcohol, consider the variable motivations for drinking, and utilise culturally appropriate methods to encourage reduced harm from alcohol use.

Critical Indigenous ways of knowing: Research, narratives, and self-actualisation

The process of Indigenous research methodologies has existed within the Anishinaabe worldview for over a millennium. The Anishinaabe-centric author presents and highlights a pathway of Indigenous research methodologies, and critically analyses research, pedagogy and attachment through an Indigenous research methodology. Indigenous research lives within the Anishinaabe language as a cultural process for understanding purpose, in addition to understanding the specific gifts unknown to the researcher. This article identifies Anishinaabe Gikendaasowin as a manner of centring oneself within one’s cultural worldview. Indigenous research methodologies contain intrinsic processes of critical cultural construct development, critical content analysis,ceremony and cultural attachment. This article further explores colonial worldview impacts on Indigenous peoples and the misapplication of that research and its influence on educational paradigms. Finally, an Anishinaabe scholarly exemplar is presented that provides tangible steps for incorporating spirit knowledge into positive, innovative and pedagogical Indigenous lessons. Indigenous research sovereignty requires consent when researching our Anishinaabe sacred practice-based evidence. As a result, Indigenous research methodologies will often start with the act of cultural grounding. Cultural grounding in research is not a new concept. In the Anishinaabe language, manidoo waabiwin can translate into seeing things in a spiritual way. This spiritual wayis the bridge to understanding, appreciating and attaching to a construct or phenomenon within an Indigenous way of knowing journey. There are many different manners to grounding one’s spiritual research work that range from offering tobacco to the aatsokaanug (inadequately translated as spirits), and to the participation in cultural activities, both of which will often promote spiritual awareness or manido waabiwin. This critical Indigenous research methodologies article highlights Anishinaabe Gikendaasowin, or Anishinaabe knowledge or ways of knowing that centres within Anishinaabe worldview. This article is embedded in Anishinaabe knowledge and can be considered Anishinaabe-centric.

A review of Nyoongar responses to severe climate change and the threat of epidemic disease—Lessons from their past

Nyoongar people have lived in the South West of Western Australia for at least 50,000 years. During that time, they experienced significant climate change, including wide variations in temperature and rainfall, and hundreds of metres’ difference in sea levels. Nyoongar people have a long memory, and climate change is described in their stories and in the knowledge they hold about how life was lived in earlier times. There are artifacts and places that have been manipulated to be productive despite severe drought. COVID-19 disrupted the writing of this article, and the authors felt it appropriate to include Nyoongar responses to the threat of epidemic disease brought by Europeans early in their settlement of the area. This review collates existing material generated through Koodjal Jinnung (two-way seeing), a research method that incorporates traditional knowledge and contemporary social and natural sciences about Nyoongar history, to create a description of the resiliency of Nyoongar people under threat from climate change. The article identifies key values and resilience factors underpinning the successful implementation of behavioural and technological mechanisms to negotiate severe climate change and the threat of epidemic disease.

Indigenous Health Workforce: exploring how roles impact experiences in Higher Education

Indigenous people have an integral role to play in improving Indigenous health outcomes by leading and being a part of the health workforce. Educating Indigenous health professionals is hence of great importance. Indigenous health students are not always acknowledged for their multiple professional and community roles and how these can affect their university education experience and success. This paper hence examines the experiences of 27 Indigenous health students and their lecturers at one Australian university around the concept of roles. The study used an Indigenous Research Methodology combined with theory driven thematic analysis. Results identified both positive and negative experiences of roles that significantly affect Indigenous health students. The study showed that students’ roles in family and community are complex and can come into conflict with student and future professional roles when students attend university. Academics interviewed for the research showed little to no understanding of Indigenous students’ complex existing roles. This research may assist universities and educators to support Indigenous health students to transition from community to university and achieve success.