'Indigenizing' universities means building relationships with nations and lands

• Until fairly recently, these ways of being and knowing have been largely absent in Canadian higher education structures.
• As part of these plans, there is often an assumption that Indigenous scholars will be better equipped to interface with local Indigenous communities, both inside and outside of universities.
• Multiple changes are needed in universities across departments, related to all faculty members, to address “Indigenization.”

Plans are points of pride

• Reconciliation and Indigenizing plans are often points of pride for their institutions, as our Indigenous Plan is at UVic.
• I have the honour and the distinction of being the first tenure-track Indigenous hire in my department’s 60-plus year history.

Indigenous academics outside own territories

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  As an Indigenous geographer, I teach extensively about relationships with land.

• When it comes to my presence on these lands, or when it comes to any Indigenous academic’s presence on land that is not their own, I argue that relations, and more broadly, relationships are what’s important.
• I refer to scholars such as Mishuana Goeman, William Langford and Katharine Neale, who talk about the ways that Indigenous identity can be shaped and reshaped in new or different places.

Cultural responsibilities, accountabilities

• Although the lands I live on are not my own, I have cultural responsibilities and accountabilities that I carry with me to be a good guest.
• I look to scholars such as Kasey Keeler, who writes about being Indigenous yet not living in our own territories.
• However, these connections are not as simple as saying, “I’m Indigenous, you’re Indigenous, let’s work together.” Rather, they are multifaceted and complex.

Everyone’s work

• I have organizational support in this regard, as my university has instituted new tenure standards that prioritize community-engaged work, particularly in Indigenous contexts.
• It is recognizing that we do our work on Indigenous lands, and that we must involve the peoples on whose territories we reside in meaningful and impactful ways in the work we do.

Meaningful consultation

• Although it is from an American institution, South Dakota State University’s Wokini Initiative provides one potential framework other institutions might learn from or adapt.
• They also mean including meaningful consultation with local Indigenous communities in ways that uplift their perspectives while not burdening them with extra time and labour — and fostering respectful relations with the land itself.

Deondre Smiles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.