Durham College (DC) is excited to share and celebrate the efforts of faculty who are working to Indigenize the curricula for several academic programs including Broadcasting – Radio and Contemporary Media; Police Foundations; and Protection, Security and Investigation. The initiative to update course materials was launched in response to specific calls to action included in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) final report released in 2015.

Working closely with the Aboriginal student advisors and visiting Elders in the college’s Aboriginal Student Centre (ASC), faculty members have significantly increased the Indigenous content in their programs and will begin implementing it for the 2017-2018 academic year.

The objective of curricula Indigenization is to give students a better grasp of Canada’s shared history and issues connected to Indigenous communities in order to inform the ways in which they approach and work within their chosen field. It is also intended to provide Indigenous students with a greater sense of their cultural backgrounds being valued and positively reflected on campus and in their studies.

Indigenizing curricula is largely focused on learning outcomes – the measurable skills or competencies a student who successfully completes a course can expect to have – which will now be reflective of Indigenous stories, issues, cultures and practices. It can also extend to the ways in which content and instruction is delivered, such as holding classes outdoors or using the learning circle formation for classes.

In addition to faculty from the schools of Media, Art & Design and Justice & Emergency Services, professors with the School of Health & Community Services have similar work underway for several of their programs.

Members of the ASC and the Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment (CAFE) have created resources for the college community and faculty to support reshaping the classroom and indigenizing the curriculum. In this year’s orientation program for new full-time faculty, the faculty were welcomed to the ASC where the Aboriginal Student Advisors began the day by acknowledging the lands and territory on which DC is situated, the faculty participated in a Smudge ceremony, and spent the morning in discussion about indigenizing the curriculum, the proper protocol to invite elders, and the significance of tobacco.

DC is a signatory of Colleges and Institutes Canada’s Indigenous Education Protocol for Colleges and Institutes, which serves to underscore the importance of structures and approaches required to address Indigenous peoples’ learning needs and support self-determination and socio-economic development of Indigenous communities. The college also recognizes that it is situated on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.