Indigenous Learnings and Resources

This is a space for me to share resources that I have become familiar with, and by no means is extensive. I have not included any links or suggestions that I have not explored myself. I have attempted to order the resources in a way that makes sense to me, but some resources may fit into different categories, depending on the learnings you are taking from them. Feel free to suggest others that I may have missed, and I will continuously update this page as I further my learning.

Placing Yourself, Land Acknowledgement, Pronunciation

• Native-Land.ca
  • An interactive map outlining the traditional territories of Indigenous people across the globe. A useful resource when planning to do a land acknowledgment in an unfamiliar area.
•  Pronunciation Guide for Indigenous Communities in BC
  • Created by tumblr user Bannock and Butter
• Keyboard for Indigenous Language
  • Free fonts and free keyboard layouts that try to cover all of the characters (alphabetical letters/Syllabics) necessary for writing Native languages of North America.
• The Meaning and Purpose of Land Acknowledgement as a Step in Reconciliation (2021)
  • The meaning and purpose of territorial land acknowledgments and their role as a step towards reconciliation with Indigenous people in Canada.

Indigenous History on Colonial Canada

• University of Alberta – Indigenous Canada
  • Indigenous Canada is a massive open online course from the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. It covers Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. The course is free, but to get a certificate of completion there is a fee.

Podcasts

• All My Relations Podcast
  • A podcast exploring what it means to be an Indigenous person today
• Indigenous Action
  • Strategic communications and direct action support for Indigenous community’s sacred lands defense.
• Storykeepers
  • A monthly book club to discuss recent and classic works by Indigenous authors.
• Teachings In The Air
  • An Indigenous health and wellness podcast hosted by Elder Gerry Oldman, to inspire, motivate, and empower Indigenous people to be sound in mind, body and spirit.
• Toasted Sister 
  • A podcast exploring traditional Indigenous foodways and knowledge.
• Unreserved with Rosanna Deerchild
  • A radio show for Indigenous community, culture and conversation.

Books

• Indian Horse – R. Wagamese (2012)
  • Telling the story of Saul Indian Horse, a First Nations boy from Ontario who survives the residential school system and becomes a talented ice hockey player.
• Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Issues in Canada – C. Vowel (2016)
  • Including topics like the Delgamuukw decision, Sixties Scoop, Bill C-31, Blood Quantum, Appropriation, Two-Spirit, Tsilhqot’in, Status, TRC, FNPOA, Pass and Permit, Treaties, Terra nullius.
• Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization (PDF) (2017)
  • Edited by P. McFarlane & N. Schabus. Inspired by a 2016 speaking tour by Arthur Manuel, described as the Nelson Mandela of Canada, and essays from renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne.

Essential Readings On The Historical and Ongoing Acts of Colonization, and Reconcilation

• The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Reports (2015)
  • The results of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s efforts to collect statements from survivors.
• In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care (2020)
  • In response to accusations of a “Price is Right” game allegedly being played in some B.C. emergency departments. The resulting review unearthed the racism and discrimination still embeded in B.C’s healthcare system.
• Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) (1996)
  • Examines the relationships between the government and Indigenous Canadians and between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians and advised the government on their findings.
• Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
  • Reveals the deliberate human and Indigenous rights violations and abuses that are the root cause behind Canada’s staggering rates of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people, and calls for transformative legal and social changes to resolve the crisis that has devastated Indigenous communities across the country.
• First Peoples, Second Class Treatment: The role of racism in the health and well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada
  • Explores and examines the ways  in which racism fundamentally contributes to the alarming disparities in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
• United Nations Declaration of Rights Of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)
  • A universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.

Documentaries

• CBCDocs – My Auntie survived residential school. I need to gather her stories before she’s gone. (2020)
  • With a pandemic threatening to take our elders, Sarain Fox gathers stories from her auntie and matriarch, Mary Bell, who hold the family’s history: the legacy, the trauma, the truth.
• Deeply Rooted – Decolonize Your Plate
  • Colonization and assimilation took away customs and traditional foods from both Native and immigrant communities. Now, local farmers and chefs are bringing back traditional cuisines.
• Deeply Rooted – Whats In A Name?
  • Much of our natural landscape still bears the evidence of colonization in the names. Some of our most beloved places, such as Mount Rainier, serve as reminders of injustices committed against indigenous communities.
• Freedom Road (2019)
  • A five part documentary series that tells the inspiring story of Shoal Lake 40 Anishinabe First Nation and their battle to build a road, after their community was forcibly relocated and cut off from the mainland over 100 years ago.
• Kanesatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993)
  • In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines.

Movies

• Indian Horse (2017)
  • Saul is taken away from his family and cultural heritage to a school where he proves his mettle by displaying sporting skills. However, his real battle continues to be with racism and alcoholism.

Social and Environmental Justice Groups and Organizations To Follow and Support

• Idle No More
  • Started in 2012 by Treaty People in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta protesting the Canadian government’s dismantling of environmental protection laws, endangering First Nations who live on the land. Continues to connect the most remote reserves to each other, to urbanized Indigenous people, and to the non-Indigenous population.
• Indigenous Action
  • Strategic communications and direct action support for Indigenous community’s sacred lands defense. Made up of a  volunteer crew of anti-colonial & anti-capitalist Indigenous media-makers, designers, artists, writers & agitators that work together on a project by project basis for liberation for Mother Earth and all her beings.
• Land Back – Yellowhead Institute

Indigenous Food Systems and Food Sovereignty

• The History of Food in Canada Is the History of Colonialism – The Walrus (2019)
  • “Indigenous food sovereignty was decimated by design: the separation of people from their historic food systems and land is not a side effect of colonialism but a function of it.”
• Food and Agricultural Organizations of the United Nations –  Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems (2021)
  • Insights on sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate change

Cultural Safety Learnings

• National Indigenous Cultural Safety Webinar Series
  • The national webinar series provides an opportunity to share knowledge, experiences, and perspectives in support of collective efforts to strengthen Indigenous cultural safety across sectors.
• San’yas Cultural Safety Training
  • Cultural safety training, designed to increase understanding of Indigenous people, increase self-awareness and strengthen skills for any person working directly or indirectly with Indigenous people. Available for free for PHSA employees.

Indigenous Organizations

• National Indigenous Diabetes Association (NIDA)
• Indigenous Sports and Recreation Council (ISPARC)

Doing Research In A Good Way

• OCAP Research Principles
• Indigenous Storywork – J. Archibald (2008)
  • Demonstrates how stories have the power to educate and heal the heart, mind, body, and spirit, built on the seven principles of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy that form a framework for understanding the characteristics of stories.
• Research Is Ceremony – S. Wilson (2008)
  • Indigenous research is the ceremony of maintaining accountability to these relationships. For researchers to be accountable to all our relations, we must make careful choices in our selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis and finally in the way we present information.
• UBC Learning Circle
  • In Good Relations: Ethics, and Reciprocity within Indigenous Research with Dr. Margaret Kovach

Social Media Accounts To Follow

• Ian Mosby – Twitter