Emphasis in Indigenous Education and Decolonization

The Indigenous Emphasis not only examines the complex and tangled histories of those on whose traditional lands OISE/University of Toronto is situated - the Ouendat (Wyandot-Huron), Onondowahgah (Seneca-) and the Misi-zaagiing (Mississaugas-Anishinaabek) nation but also extends to lands across Turtle Island and Abya-Yala. Tkaronto, as a starting place to understand Indigenous Education and Decolonization more globally, is subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Hodenosaunee and the Anishinaabe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes regions. This emphasis will provide an entry point into the knowledge systems that emerge from this particular land, with an emphasis on land itself as a teacher and a source of knowledge. The emphasis will be grounded on a decolonial pedagogy, with a commitment to anti-colonization and decolonization practices. Recognizing that these lands have existed, and still do exist, first and foremost in relationship to Indigenous people requires a critical consciousness and acknowledgement of whose traditional lands we are now on as well as the historical and contemporary realities of those relationships. It is this understanding that forms the philosophical foundation upon which all of our courses position themselves within the emphasis.