POSTSECONDARY SCHOOLS WORK TO INDIGENIZE CURRICULUM

Christian postsecondary institutions across Canada are acknowledging the past and pursuing a future of reconciliation by decolonizing their curriculum and introducing Indigenous perspectives. These actions are direct responses to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 94 calls to action (www.FaithToday.ca/94calls) published in 2015. Kathleen Lounsbury, a nursing instructor and Indigenous consultant at Trinity Western University’s school of nursing in Langley, B.C., is already seeing an impact on students. She graduated from the program in 2002 and is from the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation. From engaging students with a poignant blanket exercise that frames Canadian history with an Indigenous perspective, to hosting workshops with Indigenous elders and residential school survivors, to teaching the importance of trauma-informed care and cultural awareness in a clinical setting, Lounsbury says strong partnerships between her nursing students and nearby Indigenous communities are already forming. Lounsbury emphasizes the importance of integrating Indigenous perspectives throughout the four-year program. “We have a Western model and an Indigenous model, and we want to see from both perspectives,” she says. “Going forward, the heart of what we desire is to increase Indigenous enrollment in our nursing program. We strive for the day where Indigenous nurses are commonplace.” At Horizon College and Seminary in Saskatoon, president Jeromey Martini says the school’s goal is to graduate leaders able to bring about reconciliation. In response to the 94 calls, every Horizon graduate must complete an Indigenous ministries course. The current instructor is Horizon alumnus Jimmy Thunder, an Oji-Cree man. His brother Andrew Thunder, also a Horizon alum, helps with staff development on Indigenous matters. “Jimmy and Andrew represent a solutions-based approach to reconciliation, so that solutions-based approach marks our class interactions,” explains Martini. At Tyndale University in Toronto, Terry LeBlanc is an Indigenous elder (Mi’kmaq/Acadian) for the Bachelor of Education program. LeBlanc worked with Tyndale’s Carla Nelson to ensure an Indigenous approach would be a “throughline through the entire curriculum,” he says. “I developed a way to talk about mathematics, science, language arts, classroom discipline, history, geography and so forth, inserting Indigenous content, cultural and historical content, as well as underpinnings of science and mathematics without having to create a second and separate lesson plan,” he explains. LeBlanc is also an advisor on indigenizing theological education at Acadia Divinity College. He says that school “has taken great strides to decolonizing theological education. Period. Not just incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing and being in the theological educational enterprise, but decolonizing it overall.” Christian Higher Education Canada offers a list of resources for “Integrating Indigenous Studies into CHEC Schools’ Curricula” at www.CHECanada.ca.