BC Campus (2023) offers guidelines for Indigenization as part of a larger guide for curriculum developers. The excerpt on Indigenization covers key aspects of Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies with a suggestion for curriculum developers to seek opportunities to engage with Elders as experts in Indigenous pedagogies. Although the intention of Indigenization and engaging with Elders is good, there are some issues around this approach that I have discovered as I have gone deeper into my critical inquiry about Indigenous knowledge sharing. In a critique of Indigenization, Hill (2012) argues that there is risk in exploiting Indigenous knowledge in pursuit of neo-colonial goals. Hill warns that even with the Indigenization of post-secondary institutions, we must not disregard the fact that these institutions are colonial in nature, and this process could even strengthen processes of colonization if an explicit goal of decolonization is not present.
Furthermore, knowledge sharing often benefits the state more than it benefits Indigenous peoples and their communities. Even well-intentioned engagement or collaboration with Indigenous peoples can “perpetuate asymmetrical power relations and typically are extractive with Indigenous knowledge that is captured, interpreted, managed and applied with state language, systems and processes” (Thomas, 2022, p.2). Due to colonialism and the residential school system, Indigenous peoples have lost much of their culture and language. Many people and institutions are asking a limited (and decreasing) amount of Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers to share their knowledge which can lead to an unintentional burden and ‘knowledge extraction fatigue’, a term shared with me in a conversation with an Indigenous colleague. Engagement with Elders and Knowledge Keepers for the sake of Indigenizing Western education systems should be managed carefully and respectfully. It should be secondary to decolonizing efforts to bring rights and authority back to Indigenous peoples and to help strengthen their own knowledge systems in their own communities.
References
BC Campus. (2022, January 6). Indigenization guide: Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies. https://bccampus.ca/2022/01/06/indigenization-guide-indigenous-epistemologies-and-pedagogies/
Hill, E. (2012). A critique of the call to “Always Indigenize!”. Peninsula, 2(1). https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/peninsula/article/view/11513/3212
Thomas, A. (2022). Indigenous knowledge is not an extractable resource. Academia Letters, Article 3832.https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3832