There are two key reasons why we need a course in our MLIS program that focuses on LIS in the context of, and relation to, Indigenous peoples in Canada. One is professional: to improve our service to Indigenous peoples in Canada; and the second is a larger social and ethical imperative to incorporate Indigenous worldviews and epistemologies meaningfully into our educational curriculums and our larger epistemological framework. Both reasons, however, are rooted in the need and desire to acknowledge the unfathomable harms that have been done to indigenous peoples in Canada as a part of the European Colonialization project and to work towards reconciliation.
Before considering reconciliation, it is important to first recognize that even beyond our reconciliatory project, cultural rights have been recognized as human rights, and as cultural institutions libraries have a responsibility to uphold cultural rights. Edwards and Edwards (2010) argue that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights establishes cultural rights as a human right, article 27 in particular “establishes the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community.” (p. 2) Roy and Hogen (2010) examine what this means in the context of libraries and indigenous peoples, and the challenge that Westernized epistemology presents. It is imperative that libraries to recognize that supporting an individual’s cultural rights in the context of indigenous peoples means supporting Indigenous peoples right to “be cultural on terms of their own choosing.” (Stavenhagen, “Cultural Rights,” 19, as quoted by Roy and Hogen, p. 126) This means understanding and supporting culture as it is recognized by the people who are a part of the culture. This requires dialogue, relationship building, and intense reflection on our Westernized perceptions of culture, identity, and knowledge.
Looking more specifically at settler-indigenous relations in Canada, we are not only seeking to support cultural rights, but to atone for “the persistent and aggressive assimilation plan of the Canadian government and churches throughout the past century [and] the marginalization of Indigenous knowledge in educational institutions committed to Eurocentric knowledge.” (Battiste, 2002, 4) For Canada, one of the recent significant events in that has served as a call to action for reconciliation is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada completed their investigation into Canada’s Indian residential school systems and released their final report (2015a) as well as 94 Calls to Action (2015b). Reconciliatory calls to action included calls specific to both libraries and archives, and to educational institutions. The Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) followed up on the calls to action with their own Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations to specify the implications and create best practices for libraries across Canada.
Unsurprisingly libraries have Gaston et al. (2016) highlights the research undertaken in LIS, with support from cultural neuroscience and educational psychology, shows that “a number of core cultural values play a significant role in how people need, seek, and use information.” (p. 375) This being the case, this becomes an issue for Indigenous people (and other marginalized cultures) when we recognize that most libraries and information systems are “firmly rooted in a Western cultural lens with little consideration for the social and cultural contexts of information.” (p. 375)
For us, we have the ability to provide students with the groundwork of working towards these goals in their own professional careers. Education has been recognized as a very powerful tool in the reconciliatory process, “It is precisely because education was the primary tool of oppression of Aboriginal people, and miseducation of all Canadians, that we have concluded that education holds the key to reconciliation.” (Sinclair, 2014, p.7) In order to transform LIS Indigenous people “must participate in the practice, scholarship, and instruction of librarianship. (Doerksen and Martins, 2015, p. 13)
Tuck and Yang (2012) warn, however, that we must resist viewing “reconciliation” as a type of erasure for the oppressive practices of our history and the harm that continues to be done though settler-colonial relations.
“The absorption of decolonization by settler social justice frameworks is one way the settler, disturbed by her own settler status, tries to escape or contain the unbearable searchlight of complicity, of having harmed others just by being one’s self. The desire to reconcile is just as relentless as the desire to disappear the Native; it is a desire to not have to deal with this (Indian) problem anymore.” (p. 9)
Decolonization “is not converting Indigenous politics to a Western doctrine of liberation; it is not a philanthropic process of ‘helping’ the at-risk and alleviating suffering; it is not a generic term for struggle against oppressive conditions and outcomes. […] decolonization specifically requires the repatriation of Indigenous land and life. Decolonization is not a metonym for social justice.” (Tuck and Yang, 2012, p. 21) “Decolonization is stillborn - rendered irrelevant because decolonization is already completed by the indigenized consciousness of the settler. Now ‘we’ are all Indian, all Hawaiian, and decolonization is no longer an issue. ‘Our’ only recourse is to move forward, however regretfully, with ‘our’ settler future” (Tuck and Yang, 2012, p. 17)
There has been limited research done on the creation of decolonizing and/or indigenizing library and information science curriculum. In the Canadian context Doerksen and Martin (2015) undertook a selective literature review of aboriginal participation in library education and found that in Canada Aboriginal people have historically been an underserved and understudied demographic in the field of Library and Information Studies. We can look to work done to indigenize academic and other cultural institutions to incorporate and reflect Maori culture, knowledge, and traditions. (Louie et al., 2017). Lilley and Paringatai (2014) discuss the implementation of Indigenous knowledge and practices throughout their LIS curriculum, but do not offer much guidance on the implementation of a single course focused on decolonizing and indigenizing in LIS beyond learning goals and outcomes. Roy explores if and how LIS might incorporate an ethical learning environment based on indigenous worldviews (2015), and discusses some implementation of curriculum to prepare LIS students and early career professionals for working with Indigenous peoples and collection (2010, 2016, and 2017).
Doerksen, K., & Martin, C. (2016). A Loose Coupling: Aboriginal Participation in Library Education-A Selective Literature Review. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 10(2).
Edwards, J.B. & Edwards, S.P. (2010). Introduction. In J.B. Edwards & S. P. Edwards (Eds.) Beyond Article 10: Libraries and Social and Cultural Rights (pp. 113-148). Duluth: Litwin Books.
Gaston, N. M., Fields, A., Calvert, P., & Lilley, S. (2016). Raranga te kete aronui: Weaving social and cultural inclusion into New Zealand library and information science education. In Perspectives on Libraries as Institutions of Human Rights and Social Justice (pp. 373- 398). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Lilley, S., & Paringatai, T. P. (2014). Kia whai taki: Implementing indigenous knowledge in the Aotearoa New Zealand library and information management curriculum. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 45(2), 139-146.
Louie, D., Poitras-Pratt, Y., Hanson, A. & Ottmann, J. (2017). Applying Indigenizing Principles of Decolonizing Methodologies in University Classrooms. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 47(3), 16–33. doi:10.2304/pfie.2014.12.4.491
Roy, L. (2015). Advancing an Indigenous Ecology within LIS Education. Library Trends, 64(2), 384-414.
Roy, L., & Hogan, K. (2010). We collect, organize, preserve, and provide access, with respect: Indigenous peoples’ cultural life in libraries. In J.B. Edwards & S. P. Edwards (Eds.) Beyond Article 10: Libraries and Social and Cultural Rights (pp. 113-148). Duluth: Litwin Books.
Roy, L., & Hogan, K. (2010). We collect, organize, preserve, and provide access, with respect: Indigenous peoples’ cultural life in libraries. In J.B. Edwards & S. P. Edwards (Eds.) Beyond Article 10: Libraries and Social and Cultural Rights (pp. 113-148). Duluth: Litwin Books.
Roy, L., & Trace, C. B. (2016). Preparing Entry-level Information Professionals for Work with and for Indigenous Peoples. In C. Callison, L. Roy & G. A. LeCheminant (Eds.) Indigenous Notions of Ownership and Libraries, Archives and Museums (pp. 157-178). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Sinclair, M. (2014). Education: Cause and solution. Manitoba Teacher, 93(3), 6-10.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (2015a). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Retrieved from http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/FinalReports/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (2015b). Truth and reconciliation commission of Canada: Calls to action. Retrieved from http://nctr.ca/assets/reports/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf.
Tuck, E. & Yang, K.W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1, 1-40.