Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives

This guide highlights key resources in Indigenous Knowledges and Perspectives to support your research process.

Kenojuak Ashevak (artist) and Lukta Qiatsuk (printmaker), Birds and Foliage, 1970, stonecut on paper, 31/50. Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston. Gift of Mary Robertson, 1985 (28-138). Photo: Bernard Clark.

When conducting research, it’s important to evaluate your sources. This is doubly true for materials on Indigenous peoples. Along with other settler-colonial states, Canada has a long-standing tradition of attempts to “eliminate the native” through acts of violence, assimilationist government policies, and through the creation of cultural institutions – like the University – that exclude Indigenous peoples and champion for, explicitly or otherwise, their erasure.

With all this in mind, it’s important to grasp the idea that Indigenous peoples should be the champions of their own narratives. The “study” of Indigenous peoples has had a long history of justifying dispossession of Indigenous lands; devaluation of Indigenous peoples and their governments, cultures, and worldviews; and for many years, the outright seizure of their children. The abuse Indigenous peoples have faced at the hands of the Canadian state did not happen in a vacuum. Be mindful of the legacies of this abuse as you do research on Indigenous topics.

Consider these questions when evaluating sources:

• Who made it? What gives them the authority to speak on this issue? What are their credentials?
• Who published it, and for whom?
• What point of view is it coming from? Does it reinforce negative stereotypes?