Instructions
Major Assignment Instructions: Critically Examining Indigenous Racism in Your Profession
This major assignment asks you to critically examine how
Indigenous racism operates within your profession or field (health, social work, education, justice, planning, design, community work, etc.). Drawing on course readings, Indigenous scholarship, legal cases, films, and lectures, you will analyze:
· Systemic racism
· Colonial systems and policies
· Stereotyping
· Trauma narratives
· Structural violence
Your assignment will demonstrate
how future practitioners can take responsibility for creating ethical, culturally safer, and relationally accountable alternatives.
Your work should highlight
both the harms that exist and the possibilities for transformation, drawing on the voices, scholarship, and leadership of Indigenous Peoples.
Goals and Purpose of the Assignment
The goals of this assignment are to help you:
· Recognize how colonial structures shape your field.
· Identify how Indigenous Peoples experience racism and harm in professional settings.
· Understand your profession’s historical and ongoing role in producing anti-Indigenous racism.
· Engage meaningfully with Indigenous scholarship, legal cases, films, guest lectures, and the assigned course readings.
· Reflect on your responsibilities as a future practitioner who aims to work with integrity and respect.
· Imagine pathways toward Indigenous resurgence, safety, relational accountability, and ethical practice.
· Critically examine, reflect on, and integrate course materials to support your analysis (this assignment is
not simply descriptive).
Assignment Requirements
Your paper must address the following components:
1. Identify Concrete Examples of Anti-Indigenous Racism in Your Profession
Describe specific instances, patterns, or systemic issues. These may include (but are not limited to):
· Racial bias or stereotyping
· Discriminatory policies
· Inadequate or harmful care/service delivery
· Exclusion, erasure, or misrepresentation
· Trauma narratives that frame Indigenous Peoples as deficient rather than targeted by oppression
· Barriers to education, employment, health, justice, or safety
Important: Draw on
real cases, course materials, documented histories, or your own profession-specific knowledge. AI-generated examples are not permitted.
2. Explain How Colonial Systems Reinforce Harm
Analyze how
broader structures, not just individual actions, produce and uphold anti-Indigenous racism. You may consider:
· Legislation (e.g., Indian Act, Métis and Inuit legislation, child welfare policies, criminal justice approaches)
· Institutional practices or professional norms
· Funding structures, credentialing systems, or governance models
· Intergenerational trauma resulting from residential schools, land dispossession, and forced removals
· Curriculum, professional standards, or workplace cultures
Note: Link individual examples to
systemic, historical, and structural factors, and reflect your own thinking and engagement with course readings and lectures. AI-generated interpretation is not allowed.
LEAVE THIS SECTION OUT I’LL DO IT MYSELF
3. Reflect on Responsibilities of Helpers, Allies, and Co-Conspirators
Discuss what
ethical responsibility looks like in your field. Consider:
· How do you understand your role as a future practitioner
· Accountability to Indigenous Peoples and communities
· The difference between performative allyship and meaningful action
· What relational accountability requires in your profession
· Responsibilities to unlearn harmful norms and practices
Note: This section requires
genuine personal reflection grounded in the sources used in your paper. AI tools cannot generate or shape this content.
4. Provide Recommendations for Change
Offer recommendations grounded in
Indigenous knowledge, resurgence, culturally safe practice, and ethical practice. Your recommendations should show:
· Respect for Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination
· Awareness of Indigenous approaches to wellness, justice, learning, community, or land
· Understanding of trauma-informed and culturally safer delivery of care
· Commitment to relational accountability rather than checklist-based compliance
Note: Suggestions should be
realistic, informed, and supported by examples from scholarship and/or practice.
Writing Guidelines
·
Length: Approximately 1000 words (4 pages, double-spaced)
·
Format: Times New Roman or similar readable font, 12 pt; double-spaced; page numbers
·
Citations: Use APA 7th edition
·
Tone: Academic but reflective; grounded in relational accountability
·
Clarity: Organized, well-developed, and directly engages the assignment criteria
Rubric: Available in the D2L shell
Expectation Regarding the Use of AI
This assignment emphasizes
critical thinking, ethical reflection, and engagement with course materials.
·
Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT)
cannot be used to generate content, analysis, or design decisions.
· Using AI to replace thinking, writing, analysis, or synthesis
undermines learning objectives and may result in academic integrity concerns.
· If unsure whether a particular technology use is appropriate,
consult your instructor in advance.
Course Readings
Topics and Course Schedule
MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION – ENTERING THE EASTERN DOOR
Week 1 – Jan 15: Entering the Eastern Door – Setting the Circle
Focus: Course overview, establishing class culture, and protocols for shared learning.
Topics & Activities:
· Overview of the course outline, assignments, and class culture
· Development of class protocols and commitment to self and others while sharing space
Readings & Media:
·
Love Magazine. (2018, November 5).
Land acknowledgements: Uncovering an oral history of Tkaronto
[Video]
· National Indigenous Literacy Association. (2012).
Four Directions teachings
·
TEDxTalks. (2013, September 18).
Inclusion, exclusion, illusion and collusion: Helen Turnbull at TEDxDelrayBeach
[Video]
MODULE 2: SOVEREIGNTY, IDENTITY, AND RELATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Week 2 – Jan 22: Treaties, the Indian Act, and Political Relations
Focus: Understanding treaty relations, governance, and professional implications.
Topics & Activities:
· Treaty relations and the Indian Act
· Inuit governance
· Métis political identity
· Professional implications: Non-insured health benefits and other funding sources
Readings & Media:
· Deer, K. (2019, August 30).
Some First Nations tighten membership criteria in response to Bill S-3’s extension of Indian status. CBC News
· Reference:
As to whether “Indians” includes in s. 91(24) of the B.N.A. Act includes Eskimo inhabitants of Quebec, [1939] S.C.R. 104; [1939] 2 D.L.R. 417
·
Campbell, M., & Belcourt, T. (Directors). (2021, September 23).
Métis identity forum with Maria Campbell and Tony Belcourt
[Video]
Week 3 – Jan 29: Kinship, Identity, and Belonging
Focus: Kinship systems, identity, and relational accountability
Topics & Activities:
· Kinship relations and belonging
· Complexities of reconnecting and cultural fraud
· Traditional kinship systems and relational accountability
· Belonging vs. identity
Readings & Media:
· Maracle, G. (2021). Connections and Processes: Indigenous Community and Identity’s place in the Healing Journey.
Turtle Island Journal of Indigenous Health, 1(2), 18–27
·
Lavoie, T. (Director). (2022, March 10).
An Elder’s perspective on kinship and identity
[Video]
· Imai, S., & Buttery, K. (2013).
Indigenous belonging: A commentary on membership and identity in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (Paper No. 49). Osgoode Digital Commons
· Supplementary Resource: Guitarmyart. (2025, December 25).
The Indian Agent in the Mirror: Why “Pretendian Hunting” is Modern Day Indian Agent Work. Ashenigewin
Assignments Due:
·
Entering the Eastern Door: Self-Location & Intentions
Week 4 – Feb 5: Gender, Sexuality, and 2-Spirit Inclusion
Focus: Critiquing queer normativity and including 2-Spirit, trans, and non-binary identities
Topics & Activities:
· Critique queer normativity
· Inclusion of 2-Spirit, trans, and non-binary identities
Readings & Media:
· Lezard, P., Prefontaine, Z., Cederwell, D.-M., Sparrow, C., Maracle, S., Beck, A., & McLeod, A. (2021).
MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ National Action Plan final report – 2SLGBTQQIA+ sub-working group
· Anderson-Gardner, V. (2023, August 21).
Two-spirit has always been an identity, even if we didn’t always have the words. NFB Blog
·
Learning Network & Knowledge Hub. (Director). (2022, October 28).
Gender-based violence against Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer people
[Video]
· Supplementary Resource: Ontario Native Women’s Association. (n.d.).
Love Builds the Bundle: 2SLGBTQQIA+ Toolkit
MODULE 3: SYSTEMIC RACISM AND THE CRITIQUE OF THE TRAUMA NARRATIVE
Week 5 – Feb 12: Settler Colonialism, Land Dispossession, and Cultural Disconnection
Focus: Impact of colonization on kinship, culture, and representation
Topics & Activities:
· How colonization disrupted kinship and culture
· Portrayals of Indigenous Peoples as colonial tools
· Land rights, settler colonialism, dispossession
· Residential Schools, Sixties/Millennial Scoop, Day Schools
· Cultural “defeathering”
· Representation and stereotypes
Readings & Media:
· Legault, G. (2022). From (re)ordering to reconciliation: Early settler colonial divide and conquer policies in Canada.
Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 11(2), 44–66
· Matheson, K., Seymour, A., Landry, J., Ventura, K., Arsenault, E., & Anisman, H. (2022). Canada’s Colonial Genocide of Indigenous Peoples: A Review of the Psychosocial and Neurobiological Processes Linking Trauma and Intergenerational Outcomes.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(11), 6455
Important Dates:
· Family Day (University Closed): Monday, Feb 16, 2026
· Fall Study Week (No Classes): Tuesday, Feb 17 – Friday, Feb 20, 2026
Week 6 – Feb 26: Racism, Genocide, and Structural Violence – Understanding Anti-Indigenous Racism
Readings & Media:
· Browne, A. J., Lavoie, J. G., McCallum, M. J. L., & Canoe, C. B. (2022).
Addressing anti-Indigenous racism in…
PAY ATTENTION
· WRITE ON CHILD WEFARE IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
· READ INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY