Canadian Indigenous Studies

TuesdayS January 06 to March 10 10:00 am to 12 noon

ZOOM Session

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Reading List
Slides: Week 1
Slides: Week 2
Slides Week 3
Slides Week 4
Slides Week 5
Slides Week 6

Presenter: Tareyn Johnson

Course Overview: This course will introduce the cultural and spiritual diversity of Indigenous people from an Indigenous perspective. Focus will be on Anishinnaabeg (Ojibwe, Odawa, Pollawatomi and Agonquin), with a secondary focus on Haudenosaunee (Six Nations of the Iroquois), with introductions to the Metis, Innuit, and some American nations. The foci are due to the instructor’s Anishnaabe and Haudenosaunee ancestry. Through this course, participants will have the opportunity to expand their understandings of pre- and post-contact traditions, impacts of colonization, and cultural revitalization. 

January 6: Terminology and Land - Colonial Terminology through time: From “Indian” to “Indigenous” Indigenous Terminology: Our Names for ourselves

January 13: Pre-Contact Legislation - The Three Fires Confederacy The Five Nations Confederacy Wampum and Indigenous-to-Indigenous Treaty

January 20: The Indian Act -
  • The Magna Carta and Royal Proclamation
  • Gradual Enfranchisement and Gradual Civilization Acts
  • The Indian Act Laws
  • Sexism and Repeals

January 27: Treaties - Pre-Confederation Treaties Post-Confederation Treaties (Numbered Treaties)

February 3: Residential “Schools” - Residential School Era Indian Hospitals Intergenerational Trauma and Epigenetics

February 10: Inuit - Inuit Spirituality and Culture High Arctic Relocation Sled Dog Slaughter by the RCMP Tuberculosis Pandemic International Circumpolar Commission Nunavut Modern Treaty

February 17: Metis - Fur Trade and Rupert’s Land Metis Resistance Who are the Metis today

February 24: Ceremony and Language - Anishnaabeg Ceremonies: Names, Age, and Balance The Medicine Wheel Language Animacy

March 3: Indigenous Resistance - Red River Resistance Oka Crisis Occupation of Alcatraz Wounded Knee and Occupation of Wounded Knee Wet’suwet’en Dakota Access Pipeline

March 10: Government Commissions - Royal Commission on Aboriginal People Truth and Reconciliation commission Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquest Overrepresentation in the Judicial System

Committee Contact and Chair: Deb Forsyth-Petrov

Tareyn Johnson is Anishnaabe and a member of the Chippewa of Georgina Island First Nation. She has been the director of Indigenous Affairs at the University of Ottawa since 2017, a professor in the Indigenous Studies program since 2021, and completed her YTT200 in 2019. Tareyn is a passionate storyteller and artist, with her own company named for her daughter’s traditional name, She Came Shining. Tareyn has dedicated her personal and professional life to healing, wellness, decolonization, and teaching indigenous knowledge and history.