The purpose of this paper is to argue for intersecting Indigenous and Critical Pedagogies to transform Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) in a literature-based curriculum. The context of my argument begins in 2015, when the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action shaped the new BC curriculum, which in turn impacted my pedagogy as a public-school teacher. Well on my path to empowering students, a significant personal event catalyzed a new journey. A University of British Columbia (UBC) student whom I knew took his own life. Intersecting marginalization and discrimination, including rampant school bullying, compromised their survival. Distressed, I doubted my agency to help other marginalized students. Seeking insight to build on the mandated professional development days, I journeyed onward to the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Master of Education (M.Ed.) program.Here, I again heard the insistent distress call of EDID culture and answered the call in the context of a literature-based curriculum. In this paper, I argue that the intersection of Indigenous and critical pedagogies transforms EDID in a literature-based curriculum because it allows all readers to co-contextualize and co-interpret the text, and to co-transformresponses to the text that reflect these intersecting pedagogies. Liberation results when the teacher and the writer, as voices of authority, allow space for all learners to be heard. This liberation applies to any reader who seeks transformation through a literature-based curriculum and it also applies to contexts beyond the classroom. An intersection of oppressive ideologies can crush the will to live, as in the UBC student’s story, but I argue that an intersection of empowering ideologies can transform a life. This epiphany emanates from the teachings of educators, knowledge-keepers, and learners of the past and present.To them and to the UBC student I knew, I dedicate this Capstone Paper.
