Auto ethnography: Journey in decolonizing and Indigenizing my teaching and curriculum

To begin I would like to acknowledge and give honour to the Secwepemc—the ancestral peoples who have lived here for thousands of years—upon whose traditional and unceded land Thompson Rivers University is located. The Secwepemc maintain a spiritual and practical relationship to the land, water, air, animals, plants and all things needed for life on Mother Earth. It is with that in mind that we owe this debt of gratitude. (ALBAA Research Team, 2010, p.1) I have been a part of the educational system for nineteen years now. I have completed from kindergarten to grade twelve, and then completed six years of postsecondary schooling resulting in two degrees: A Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education. I am a life-long learner and just begun my journey as an educator. Upon entering the Bachelor of Education one of the first topics covered was the release of the New BC Curriculum. It was made clear to us that we were required to incorporate Aboriginal ways of knowing and pedagogies across the curriculum in our teaching in a meaningful way. This is part of the nationwide efforts to reconcile and a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls for Action (TRCR, 2015), specifically to the statement “Education got us into this mess, education should take us out of it (Sinclair, 2015). This has led to teachers across Canada to engage in the process of Indigenization. Previous to the experiences with Indigenous curriculum, the Bachelor of Education provided me with, I had remained ignorant to much of Indigenous history, culture, language, and the people who inhabited the land around me. I knew very little about Aboriginal world views and pedagogies. It this important education was absent from my upbringing and experience with the public education system. In my first year of the Bachelor of Education program, I was given an assignment to create a children’s book or educational center that incorporated Aboriginal worldviews and pedagogies. This is where my journey toward decolonization truly started. The children’s book that I created for that class was the catalyst that helped me dive deeper into this self reflective process. By working with a team including my supervisor and Indigenous eductors and advisors, I have been learning about incorporating Indigenous worldviews and pedagogies into my teaching and learning. This has encouraged me along the process of understanding decolonization and Indigenizing my teaching to become an effective educator. The assignment lead me to create a story called Tail of Tails, which was based on an Ojibway story about how the beaver got a flat tail. This process was an eye opening experience into the world of Indigenous knowledges and worldviews. This would have been impossible without the many people I consulted with to ensure the book followed Aboriginal pedagogies and content. It went under many revisions to ensure the ending of the story reflected Aboriginal worldviews as I was a non-Indigenous person writing about Indigenous content. This was not a road I anticipated having to navigate in my life, but I was thankful for the opportunity as it gave me the chance to create relationships and work alongside many Indigenous storytellers and minds. It brought me the opportunity to learn local Secwepemc language and worldviews I would not have been able to experience otherwise. The primary purpose of this research project was to engage in an exploration which would prompt a deeper understanding of Aboriginal culture, progress in my journey to decolonizing education, openness to other cultures and worldviews, and ultimately to become a better educator. The insights from this auto ethnographic study will assist other teachers and teacher candidates in their own journey to decolonize and indigenize education. It will provide an example of how to incorporate indigenous language and worldviews in elementary classrooms.