Co-creating the Cities We Deserve through Indigenous Knowledge

Abstract

If urban cities represent the identity of modern civilization and the power of that civilization, then the erasure of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous knowledge from the city landscape is a perfect illustration of contemporary colonization in modern form. In an era of truth and reconciliation, Indigenous urban planners are pushing back in resistance to this contemporary colonization to create the conditions for an Indigenous cultural comeback in every neighbourhood, bike path, and downtown core. Through every new installation of Indigenous public art, incorporation of Indigenous design into a new building, or daylighting Indigenous knowledge on how the lands and waters sustained life for millennia before settlers bulldozed and renamed it all—Indigenous urban planners are ensuring that the next generation of city dwellers understand that they reside on ancient lands by building Indigenous knowledge into all aspects of city planning. This is a new goal of cities across Canada—to acknowledge the truth of these lands having always been the unceded homelands of Indigenous Peoples, while developing new processes to co-create a city identity that connects everyone to the land they share through Indigenous knowledge.