Critical Incidents in Modern Indigenous History: INDG-1002H

Reflection:

One INDG course is mandatory for an undergraduate degree at Trent university. I am grateful for this, because I am very confident that without this requirement, I would likely not have taken any courses on indigenous content in my higher education. To be truly candor, I did not know what to expect when approaching and engaging in this class. I was lucky enough that a good friend of mine, who majored in Indigenous Studies and identified as Indigenous was alongside me. Ultimately, we ended up engaging in some very insightful dialect around Indigenous history, practices, teaching and more.

This is not a class where I say I feel like I learned concrete, factual information. Rather it was an exposure to a way of learning and a different way of thinking. I did not leave lecture recounting specific dates, definitions or work on my rote memorization. I left with a consideration of how I learned, who I was and how the society I was in shaped my educational pathway and ways of thinking. It was a class for pondering and working to put yourself in different shoes and see from a different lens. As a white woman from a comfortable background, it forced me to face some of the things I may have turned my eyes away from in the past. I strongly believe that although change is good, it is not always easy. The best route isn’t, and often shouldn’t be the easiest. Uncomfortable truths that may make your stomach turn and hands sweat should still be acknowledged as truths.

Rose, Thorn, Rosebud

Rose: Turtle island reads + conversations I was exposed to that I wouldn’t have gotten had I not had the opportunity to take this course.

Thorn: 10-page paper didn’t feel like the best and most accurate way to display what I feel was most important in this class (and was the biggest assignment).

Rosebud: Taking what I learned in this class and applying it to classes that had nothing to do with Indigenous content – but still encouraged me to use a different lens when considering education and learning.