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Take Our Challenge!
Take Our Challenge!
We Are Inviting You! Desire to Indigenize!
We Are Inviting You! Desire to Indigenize!
We invite you to be involved in our journey. How can we help you to Indigenize your Brightspace?
To begin, consider the following questions:
How can you Indigenize D2L Brightspace?
How are you using Brightspace to Indigenize?
What can an Indigenized Brightspace look like?
How are you being respectful and responsible with the Indigenous content you are using?
How does your idea show your desire to Indigenize?
Ideas to Get You Started!
Ideas to Get You Started!
We hope our work can teach by example. Here are some elements you could consider doing based on the work we have accomplished with Brightspace:
is there an Indigenous graphic you could incorporate with permission into the design? (such as our work with Joe's tipi design)
is there an elder or knowledge keeper you could feature from the territory where you are located? (such as our work featuring Joe and Calvin as well as Dr. Leroy Little Bear)
is there an elder or knowledge keeper with whom you can visit to talk about ideas of how you could work together to create something for your Brightspace? (such as Chris working with Joe and Calvin)
is there a visual (a photo, a video, a map) of the land that you could feature – one including your version of a land acknowledgement (such as the landscape photos used here and their significance explained)
is there an image you have of everyone involved working together – being good relatives (as shown in the photo of Chris, Joe, and Khethwen as well as in the photo of Chris, Chuck, Ian, and Joe)
Our D2L Fusion 2024 in Toronto aimed to offer participants with ideas of how Indigenizing Brightspace could look like.
Start and Work from a Place of Humility and Historical Awareness
Start and Work from a Place of Humility and Historical Awareness
Still living in Edmonton, Alberta, in 2010, Chris first met Joe when he travelled five hours south to support Joe's sundance ceremony (where Chris was a helper in Joe's tipi!). Although he has since been adopted into Joe's community, Chris remains humble in knowing he is a non-Native visitor living and working on Blackfoot Territory.
Chris recognizes this working and familial relationship has been made possible because of the making of Treaty 7 in 1877. Joe's great-great grandfather, Many Spotted Horses, was one of the chiefs who touched the pen or made his mark on the treaty document, establishing a treaty relationship meant to last as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow. Joe and Chris view their work here as honouring a treaty relationship – one of mutual agreement and respect.
Chris offering tobacco and material to Joe at MRU's Journey to Indigenization Event (Sept., 2023)
⚠️ What to Watch for! Do the Right Thing!
⚠️ What to Watch for! Do the Right Thing!
Part of the challenge will be figuring out how you can help viewers, non-Indigenous folks particularly, see through an Indigenous lens while they are using Brightspace. Visuals in this regard are helpful. However, providing visuals and presenting information of which you may not have ownership requires permission from those who are the rightful owners. Therefore, work closely with the Indigenous people you are consulting. For the Blackfoot Odyssey, Joe has been consulted and included every step of the way.
If you are accepting our challenge, be sure you are being ethically considerate. In other words, do the right thing:
Follow etiquette and observe protocols of the Indigenous peoples with whom you are working.
Protect your elders and knowledge keepers from being exploited and treated unfairly.
Ensure Indigenous knowledge is fairly compensated.
Recognize mutual values and understand what reciprocity means.
For Joe, copyright agreements were created ensuring he is protected and that he remains the rightful owner of his material that he has shared for the purpose of this course.
Remember that Indigenization is long-term. It's not a trend, a fad, or a special topic for the moment, nor is it a soup of the day or flavour of the month. It is not a tick box to check. Like the spirit and intent of the treaty relationship – as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow – it is meant to be for the long run.
If you are unwilling to maintain your initiative after starting it, if your heart is not in it for a long period of time, and if you are pursuing this initiative for the wrong reasons, then you should reconsider starting one in the first place.
Like our mission and vision statements, our values serve as guiding principles to ensure our work and working relationship move forward in a good way.
Step Right Up with Our Desire to Share the Indigenization Challenge!
Step Right Up with Our Desire to Share the Indigenization Challenge!
Let's do this! Let's make a difference! Let's share with the D2L community our desire to Indigenize at next year's D2L Fusion!
Day 1 Registration for Fusion 2024 – D2L's Annual Conference
Photo Credit: Megan Bearder Photography (D2L Fusion Photographer)
Mount Royal University began using D2L as its Learning Management System (LMS) in the Fall of 2022 – the same time Chris started teaching at MRU. Every summer thereafter, Chris has co-presented with Joe at Fusion where they have shown how they have Indigenized D2L Brightspace.
Here is our Fusion presentation history:
Fusion 2025 – Savannah, Georgia
Fusion 2025 – Savannah, Georgia
Our Learning Exchange Digital Poster Session:
(I) "Iinnii Sacred Space Matters on D2L – Transforming Brightspace into Indigenous Sacred Space"
Date and Time:
Mon., July 21 – 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location:
Governor's Ballroom Foyer, Savannah Convention Center
(II) Our Research Track Session:
"Iinnii Sacred Space Matters on D2L – The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning from a Blackfoot Odyssey"
Date and Time:
Wed., July 23 – 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Location:
Savannah Convention Centre – 109
Presentation Abstract:
Our SoTL research explores the student experience with new curriculum we developed and designed for D2L Brightspace called Blackfoot Odyssey. This session will show how we transformed not only Brightspace into sacred space by Indigenizing its features but also other learning spaces at MRU. We will share our preliminary research findings. Learn about why education is the new buffalo and why Iinnii sacred space matters.
Fusion 2024 – Toronto, Ontario
Fusion 2024 – Toronto, Ontario
D2L Fusion Schedule - Conference Registration Required to Attend
Our Breakout Session:
"Desire to Indigenize: Transforming Brightspace into Sacred Space - Learning from a Blackfoot Odyssey."
Date and Time:
Wed., July 10 - 2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
Location:
Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) - North Building — 104D
Presentation Abstract:
Oki! (a Blackfoot greeting) We will show how Brightspace can be used to transport learners to a ceremonial space. Attendees will bear witness to our new, exclusive short film, Sunbonnet Lodge Tipi Design, based on last year’s D2L Fusion presentation, as well as learn about our latest work on the sacredness of land inspired by a Blackfoot Odyssey – in literature and in real life.
Desire to Indigenize:
Transforming D2L Brightspace into Sacred Space
Fusion 2023 – Anaheim, California
Fusion 2023 – Anaheim, California
Our Breakout Session:
"Featuring a Blackfoot (Kainai) Tipi Design and Its Vision in a D2L Indigenous Course: Process, Protocol, Sharing, and Understanding."
Date and Time:
Thurs., July 13, 2023 – 2:20 p.m. - 3:05 p.m.
Location:
Anaheim Marriott (700 W Convention Way Anaheim, CA) — Platinum 3
Presentation Abstract:
Blackfoot Spiritual Leader & Elder Joe Eagle Tail Feathers has given permission to share his tipi design with Dr. Christopher Grignard. The design will be a prominent D2L feature of the Indigenous courses Grignard instructs in the Dept. of English at MRU, located in Calgary, Canada, and situated on the traditional territory of the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot people). Attendees of this session will consider the ways D2L can be indigenized. They will learn the meaning of a tipi design, the vision behind Eagle Tail Feathers' design, and the reasons for featuring such a design and story on Christopher's D2L. Joe will share his support and his concerns regarding indigenization initiatives such as this one.
🗪 Keep in Touch! Stay Connected!
🗪 Keep in Touch! Stay Connected!
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