Radical Epistemic Justice and Two-Eyed Seeing: Teaching First Nations and Indigenous Histories

Abstract In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission issued a clarion call for the settler population of Canada to enter into a relationship with Indigenous peoples through ninety-four Calls to Action that address the harms colonialism caused and to comprehensively address all elements of the two groups’ shared social, economic, cultural, and political story. For the Anisininew people at Island Lake, Manitoba, this inclusive approach to repair colonial damage and to move into new relationships is referred to as mino bimaadiziwin, or living together “in a good way.” The Anisininew communities at Island Lake have entered into a partnership with academics at Brandon University to restore, recover, and reveal the shared past of settlers and Anisininew, showing not only great kindness and openness, but also a true commitment to reparative justice. This type of collaborative research results in knowledge identified as “two-eyed seeing.” This syllabus is the fruit of such collaborative labor, one that strives to live up to the spirit of reconciliation. The methodology at the core of the course is transformative praxis. Given that there is no other official historical account of the Anisininew peoples of Island Lake, students will experience a “from-the-ground-up” training in this process of historical rebuilding.