Cedar, Tea and Stories: Two Indigenous Women Scholars Talk About Indigenizing the Academy

Abstract

In an effort to redress the educational needs of Indigenous peoples as part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s call to action (2015), two Indigenous colleagues, Elizabeth Brulé and Ruth Koleszar-Green, came together to engage in a collective reflection on what Indigenizing the curriculum has meant to each of them. Through a collective dialogue that affirms that knowledge is created through our individual and collective storytelling, they discussed the challenges and successes that Indigenous women have encountered in their attempts to indigenize the curriculum over the past decade in the province of Ontario, Canada. Collaborative work such as this has not only provided them with an enriching intellectual and collective experience but has also given them cause for hope in their pursuit for truth and reconciliation. Through this collective dialogue, issues of Indigeneity, pedagogy, reconciliation and sisterhood are discussed.