History
History
Abstract
A lifelong journey began in April 1993 when I was asked by a francophone Cégep to teach a Québec history course for the Cree Nation of Chisasibi on the shores of James Bay. I was asked to teach from a history book that included almost nothing about Indigenous peoples and defined the starting point of the region’s history as Jacques Cartier’s 1534 voyage through the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. This exposed the absurdity of the province’s history curriculum, and created a dilemma for me. Where could I source relevant teaching resources and how should I teach history to people who had lived on these lands since time immemorial? Since that formative experience, I’ve been involved in various initiatives to Indigenize pedagogy and promote reconciliation. While I’ve made many mistakes over the years, I’ve also benefitted from the generous mentorship of Indigenous educators and elders, and have incorporated several key principles into my pedagogical approach.
Robert Harding, University of the Fraser Valley