Indigenous Resistance and Settler Colonialism in Canada

Curriculum guideline

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Course
HIST 3370
Discontinued
No
Course code
HIST 3370
Descriptive
Indigenous Resistance and Settler Colonialism in Canada
Department
History
Faculty
Humanities & Social Sciences
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
Not Specified
PLAR
No
Semester length
15 Weeks
Max class size
25
Course designation
Indigenous Content
Industry designation
None
Contact hours

Lecture: 2 hours per week

and

Seminar: 2 hours per week

Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Learning activities

Classroom instruction will include both lectures and seminar discussions. Lectures will provide instruction on weekly topics with opportunities for student inquiry and discussion. Seminars will encourage active class participation in the analysis of assigned primary and secondary readings. Classroom instruction may also include facilitation of student-led projects, student presentations on specific readings and/or topics, and other types of student-led activities. Classroom instruction may also include tutorials and workshops on transferable skills, including research methods, academic citation practice, and presentation skills.

Methods may include:

  • lecture/discussion
  • group work
  • peer review
  • independent research
  • instructor feedback on students’ work
  • individual consultation
  • presentation (individual or group)
Course description
This course explores Indigenous people and the state in Canada, focusing on Indigenous voices and experiences; Indigenous activism and resistance to settler colonialism; Indigenous ways of knowing; and Indigenous-led initiatives of self-determination, renewal, and reclamation. Topics include land rights, treaty relationships and Indigenous sovereignty; Indigeneity and the Indian Act; the history and legacy of residential and day schools, welfare services, health, and medical care; government commissions and reports; and Indigenous self-determination, resilience, and political mobilization.
Course content

A sample course outline may include the following topics.

Note: Content may vary according to the instructor’s selection of topics.

  1. Introduction to Settler Colonialism in Canada
  2. Land: Dispossession, Treaties, and Indigenous Sovereignty 
  3. Indigeneity and the Indian Act
  4. Education: Residential and Day Schools
  5. Indigenous Reclamation of Education
  6. Welfare Services: 60s Scoop and Millennium Scoop
  7. Health and Medical Care
  8. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples
  9. Truth Telling and Justice
  10. Apologies
  11. International Truth and Reconciliation Approaches
  12. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
  13. Towards Truth and Reconciliation in Canada
Learning outcomes

At the conclusion of the course, successful students will be able to demonstrate historical thinking skills, research skills, critical thinking skills, and communication skills appropriate to the level of the course by:

1. Locating, examining, assessing, and evaluating a range of primary sources and secondary scholarly literature critically and analytically (reading history).

2. Constructing historical arguments, taking historical perspectives, and interpreting historical problems through different types of writing assignments of varying lengths (writing history).

3. Participating in active and informed historical debate independently and cooperatively through classroom discussion and presentation (discussing history).

4. Independently and cooperatively investigating the ways that history is created, preserved, and disseminated through public memory and commemoration, oral history, community engagement, and other forms of popular visual and written expressions about the past (applying history).

 

Means of assessment

Assessment will be in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation policy. Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.

Students will have opportunities to build and refine their research capacity and historical thinking skills through assessments appropriate to the level of the course. There will be at least three separate assessments, which may include a combination of midterm and final exams; research essays; primary document analysis assignments and essays; quizzes; map tests; in-class and online written assignments; seminar presentations; student assignment portfolios; group projects; creative projects; class participation.

The value of each assessment and evaluation, expressed as a percentage of the final grade, will be listed in the course outline distributed to students at the beginning of the term. Specific evaluation criteria will vary according to the instructor’s assessment of appropriate evaluation methods.

Instructors may use a student’s record of attendance and/or level of active participation in the course as part of the student’s graded performance. Where this occurs, expectations and grade calculations regarding class attendance and participation will be clearly defined in the Instructor Course Outline.

 

An example of one evaluation scheme:

  • Participation and In-Class Work: 15%
  • Seminar Group Facilitation: 10%
  • Primary Source Analyses: 15%
  • Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography: 15%
  • Research Essay: 25%
  • Final Summative Assignment: 20%
  • Total: 100%
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Course Readers may be chosen from the following list, to be updated periodically:

An instructor’s custom Course Reader may be required. Additional online resources may also be assigned.

  • Alfred, Taiaiake. It’s All About the Land: Collected Talks and Interviews on Indigenous Resurgence. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023.
  • Asch, Michael, John Borrows, and James Tully, eds. Resurgence and Reconciliation: Indigenous-Settler Relations and Earth Teachings. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
  • Blackburn, Carole. Beyond Rights: The Nisg_a’a Final Agreement and the Challenges of Modern Treaty Relationships. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021.
  • Craft, Aimée, and Paulette Regan, eds. Pathways of Reconciliation: Indigenous and Settler Approaches to Implementing the TRC's Calls to Action. Vol. 2. Winnipeg: Univ. of Manitoba Press, 2020.
  • Johnson, Harold R. Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada [with a new afterword]. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2023.
  • Lux, Maureen K. Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016.
  • Manuel, Arthur, and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson. The Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering the Land, Rebuilding the Economy. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 2017.
  • Manuel, Arthur, and Ronald M. Derrickson. Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2021.
  • McCallum, Mary Jane Logan, and Adele Perry. Structures of Indifference: An Indigenous Life and Death in a Canadian City. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2018.
  • Miller, J. R. Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts its History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.
  • Nickel, Sarah, and Amanda Fehr, eds. In Good Relation: History, Gender, and Kinship in Indigenous Feminisms. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2020.
  • Regan, Paulette. Unsettling the Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010.
  • Stark, Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik, Aimée Craft, and Hokulani K. Aikau, eds. Indigenous Resurgence in an Age of Reconciliation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2023.
  • Vowel, Chelsea. Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Metis, & Inuit Issues in Canada. Winnipeg: Portage & Main Press, 2016.
Prerequisites

One 2000-level History Course, or permission of the instructor.

Corequisites