Indigenous Perspectives Education Guide
This guide is designed to align with current Canadian curricula, and has been produced for use in middle and high school history and social science classrooms. The guide is therefore not comprehensive in its coverage, focusing primarily on the history that is taught in classrooms. Teachers may wish to address topics not covered in this guide to provide a more complete understanding of Indigenous worldviews.
Popular narratives of Canadian history have most frequently been told from the perspective of European settlers. As a result, Indigenous experiences have often been neglected or excluded from the telling of our country’s history. For a more comprehensive understanding of Canada’s history, it is important to examine it from Indigenous perspectives. Doing so requires students to explore the depth, breadth, diversity, and regional variation of experiences of Indigenous peoples in the land that is now Canada. It is also necessary to examine the legacy and consequences of colonialism and the repressive policies to which Indigenous peoples have been subjected. This guide aims to engage students in thinking critically about our historical narratives, and help them consider how both individual and collective worldviews shape — and are shaped by — history.
Much of the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada in the last two centuries is characterized by institutionalized discrimination and inequity, through colonialist and assimilationist eorts such as the Indian Act and Residential Schools. However, Indigenous peoples have not been passive over this time. To the contrary, they have been active agents — acting independently and collectively to resist colonial restrictions, to preserve their traditions, languages and beliefs, and to advocate for their established but often-ignored rights.
The development and production of Historica Canada’s bilingual education guides is a collaborative process that engages history educators, academic historians, and community stakeholders in content creation and lesson planning. Historica Canada is grateful to share the voices of Indigenous educators and scholars within this guide.