Learning bundles a gift of Indigenous knowledge

New curriculum to help Indigenize instruction, build community

Indigenous peoples affiliated with Western have created six teaching modules instructors can use to share Indigenous knowledge and worldviews in their classrooms.

Called learning bundles – an homage to traditional Indigenous bundles that contain Indigenous teachings and medicines – they are intended to enrich and Indigenize the curriculum at Western.

“We carry these gifts of knowledge, and we want to share them so instructors can share Indigenous perspectives in an ethical way,” said teaching fellow Candace Brunette-Debassige, co-ordinator of the project and a professor in the Faculty of Education.

Work towards this digital repository of resources started three years ago, as Brunette-Debassige and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives team “recognized there were huge gaps across the curriculum,” she said.

Each bundle ­­– which can be taught in any course in any department and faculty – is equivalent to about three hours of teaching time and follows one of six themes:

  • Indigenous land and place
  • Indigenous women and resilience
  • Indigenous storytelling and media
  • Orientation to Indigenous knowledge
  • Indigenous leadership
  • Indigenous and Black solidarities

Collectively, the bundles are called Maatookiiying gaa-miinigoowiziying (sharing our gifts).

Learn more from the Western News article here.