Formed in 1982, the Indigenous History Group brings together scholars working independently or for governments, museums, or universities. In the words of one of its founding members, “the primary aim of the group was to act as a clearing-house and avenue of communication for those active in the field of Aboriginal history.”
Its main efforts to meet these goals have been annual business meetings at the CHA, sponsorship of sessions, organization of special events and field trips coordinated with the CHA’s annual meeting, the publication of newsletters and liaison with other groups. The group awards two prizes annually, one for the best book and the other for the best article in the field of Indigenous History. The Indigenous History Group welcomes new members from any disciplinary background. The group is most active on Facebook. Join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1553402478261783
In late-October 2020, Thomas Peace met with Marie Battiste, Alan Corbiere, and Sarah Nickel to discuss decolonization and Indigenization in the teaching of North American history. Over the course of an hour, the conversation explored the meaning of decolonization, Indigenizing the academy, Indigenous resurgence in the Indigenizing of history, assessed specific anticolonial strategies for affecting change in the discipline, and provided advice for history teachers and professors about how to change pedagogies and curriculum.
To extend the conversation, we asked the panelists to provide a list of useful resources history teachers and professors can use to learn more about the subjects addressed during the session. Here is their reading list:
- Marie Battiste, Visioning Mi’kmaw Humanities: Indigenizing the Academy (Sydney: Cape Breton University Press, 2016)
- Susan Sleeper-Smith et al., eds., Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015)
- Marie Battiste, Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2013)
- Devon Mihesuah, “Should American Indian History Remain a Field of Study,” in Devon Mihesuah and Angela Cavender Wilson, eds., Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004).
- A Syllabus for History after the TRC
Image: Stó:lō Elder and cultural advisor Naxaxalhts’i leads the group on a tour of his traditional territory during the CHA’s 2019 annual meeting.