Decolonizing and Indigenizing Engineering: The Trauma of Learning the Truth about Canada’s Colonial Present & History in Curricula

Engineering educators in Canada have a responsibility to seek the truth, commit to, and lead reconciliation efforts. This responsibility comes with other responsibilities: to be mindful of the impact that learning these truths have on Indigenous students and Indigenous faculty specifically, and to integrate content and supports to help students and faculty navigate the trauma triggered by these curricula. This SoTL paper discusses the second offering of a course designed to introduce engineering students to decolonizing and Indigenizing engineering. It shares the collective findings from the reflections on the experiences of several Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and one instructor who took the course. Based on our learnings from these reflections, recommendations are made for enhancing the course design to better prepare students for the traumatic impact of learning a decolonized and Indigenized curriculum.