Beyond Indigenous Awareness

A Discussion with Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom

Date: January 20, 2021 (Thursday)

Time: 6 – 7:30 pm CST

Platform: Zoom

Registrants are asked to view a recording of Dr. Lindstrom’s webinar “Beyond Indigenous Awareness and Competencies Training: Centering Indigenous Relationality in Professional Development” before attending the Q+A.

A link to the recording and the slide deck will be provided after registration.

Dr. Lindstrom’s webinar was previously hosted by Maskwacis Cultural College Microlearning Series in July 2020.

Presenter: Dr. Gabrielle Lindstrom (née Weasel Head) is an Educational Development Consultant in Indigenous ways of knowing in the Taylor Institute of Teaching and Learning with the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her role involves providing leadership and consultative expertise to enhance teaching and learning across multiple levels at the University of Calgary with a specialization in Indigenous pedagogies. Her research interests include meaningful assessment, Indigenous homelessness policy reform, Indigenous health, intercultural pedagogies, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): intercultural parallels, Indigenous resilience, assessment reform in Child Welfare, anti-colonial theory and anti-racist pedagogy.

Session Summary: Based on Dr. Lindstrom’s experiences facilitating Indigenous awareness and competencies training workshops, the recorded webinar aims to problematize current diversity and inclusion discourses and educational/professional development approaches. The objectives of this session include:

• Establishing how current Indigenous cultural competency and awareness training approaches are often insufficient to address the overall ignorance, or lack of awareness, of non-Indigenous peoples working in healthcare, education and social serving systems.

• Propose that the experiential components of the competency and awareness training are not enough to dismantle stereotypes and often work to either further desensitize or traumatize non-Indigenous participants.

• In terms of mainstream diversity programming and awareness programs, explain how Western systems need to move beyond Indigenous awareness training since many Indigenous peoples see that it is not a useful learning model because it only addresses filling in knowledge with regards to what non-Indigenous people are missing and not what Indigenous peoples have lost and are continuing to lose – both amongst themselves and in White mainstream society.

• Describe a relational learning model that is delivered from an Indigenous perspective and utilizes Indigenous pedagogy and knowledge. Teachings are intended to offer a deepened understanding of colonial impacts as a pathway towards fostering critical self-reflexive practice. An anti-colonial theoretical lens allows for learners to understand that in colonial nations, social domination underpins the Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations.

Cost: Free

Registration required. Registration link: tba

For more information, please contact Mary Horodyski at advocacy@mbarchives.ca

This recording was first shown in July 2020 as part of the Maskwacis Cultural College Microlearning Series. We are grateful to Maskwacis Cultural College for allowing us to present the recording.

This event is sponsored by the Association for Manitoba Archives as part of our partnership agreement with the City of Winnipeg’s Indigenous Accord.