Author Archives: sundeep lail

For my final module, I am looking at incorporating Indigenous awareness and the environment.  I think it is so important for people in the trades to learn about how construction can be used in a better way to help the environment, but also how to see construction and the environment from an Indigenous perspective.

Unfortunately, what I am seeing is a disconnect between the trades and the environment and an Indigenous perspective.  I can find trades and the environment, or the environment and Indigenous information, but no information on the three themes together.  So, this might prove to be a little cumbersome or messy when it comes to writing information about this.

However, for now, in this blog I will put try to add as much information as I can with regards to these three themes.

M4 P1

This is a great resource regarding indigenous knowledge and climate change.  It gives a lot of information about the impact of colonialism on climate change and how “self-determination is the key” to combat climate change.

Climate Atlas

It also has a great short video on how the world is out of balance.

M4P2

Indigenous Clean Energy

This website showcases how indigenous led programs are supporting the cause in climate change.  They “promote Indigenous leadership and inclusion in Canada’s energy futures”

Indigenous Clean Energy

They also support an initiative which is entitled “Power to the People”.  This aligns well with the information we have been learning in class and that of self-representation and self-determination.  Power to the People is an indigenous led “television documentary series that explores the renewable energy revolution empowering Indigenous communities across Canada”.  It is run by Indigenous groups and really focuses on how they see the world and their perspective on the environment and ultimately, how they think we help the environment.

Power to the People

M4P3

Bow Lake Earth Project is interesting because it has successfully worked with Indigenous peoples to create a wind farm which is the largest in North America.  It is a great collaboration between a corporate/trades developer and a large Indigenous group.

M4P4

This article surprised me a bit as it talks about how Indigenous led clean energy could lead to reconciliation.  In my mind I had never thought of reconciliation and climate change in the same breath.  The website discusses how reconciliation is about shared knowledge and how this can lead to healing and reconciliation.

It made me think about how can we all heal while also allowing the earth to heal.

A Shared Future

M4P5

This last post I would like to share some videos about Indigenous world view and climate change.  I saw this and it gave me some insights as to how i wanted to create similar videos an this subject.

This next video gave me time to pause.  It talks about giving rights to bodies of water. it is decolonizing our thought processes and yet at the same time, having to work within the Eurocentric world.  In this case it means giving a voice to what we would generally think as inanimate but what Indigenous people consider as an entity.

Within my own work, I have access to some Indigenous training that was created for the Building Trades.  Unfortunatley, i can’t provide the slides here, however, I am providing a link to a overview of what the course teachers and the various modules.

This course was designed by an Indigenous person  in the trades and has a great perspective on Indigenous history.

Indigenous People’s in the Trades

Teaching History from an Indigenous Perspective.

A great article that I would like to look at for my project.  I think it is so important to learn from the people who know the best.  If we want to teach indigenous culture, it should be taught from and indigenous perspective.  However, how do we do that, when the majority of teachers are not Indigenous and only have a very limited knowledge about Indigenous culture.  How can I understand Indigenous ways and how do I chunk it into sizeable parts so it can be easily digestible for a union member who is not used to learning and might find this content and the reason we are learning it a little challenging.

Teaching History from an Indigenous Perspective.

The idea of an immersive education system, hands on learning, understanding why things are and where they come from is so important in getting buy-in from the learners.   I love this next video for a number of different reasons.  Eddy Robinson gives us the reasons behind why he is teaching us, he gives us stories to engage the learners.  I also love this video because of the way the learners start off hesitant but through his story and  the indigenous stories he tells, the learners are so engrossed and you can tell that there is a shift in perspective and understanding of what it means to be a leader and an ally.

What does an Indigenous school look like?

When I very young we came from England to Canada, specifically to Montreal.  We were told that we had to learn French no matter what.  I was put into a french immersion class.  In this class it was all the new immigrants that had recently landed in that area.  We all spoke a different language and the only way to converse with anyone was to find a common ground, in this case French.  We were not taught any of the basics of other curriculum, only 6 months of French.  The result was that after the 6 months…I went from not knowing any French to understand and becoming quite fluent in the language.

Looking back at this story, it made me think about what would an indigenous school look like?

I want to incorporate this idea into my work and the course that I am creating.  I’m curious to know what does an indigenous school look like?  Should it be completely immersive,and holistic? should it have aspects of indigenous knowledge since we all need to learn to live and work in the Eurocentric world?

Another video I found interesting was regarding the theme of decolonizing education.

Is this what needs to be done, and what that would look like.

I am trying to gather more information about the relationship between indigenous Peoples and the Trades.  However a lot of information seems to be from a very Eurocentric point of view.  Unions come from very Eurocentric background and the information gleaned from them does not take into account other cultures that may have worked with them.

M2 P1 – Articles:

This first entry is a paper on how to become an indigenous ally.  Individuals in Unions need to understand what is allyship, what are biases and stereotypes that prevent us from truly being strong allies.

Smith, J., ( 2016). Indigenous allyship: An overview. WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY.  Indigenous allyship: An overview (researchgate.net)

M2 P2 – Canadian Labour Force

This was report by the Canadian Labour Force Development board looking at Canada’s indigenous populations and how they relate to the apprenticeship program in Canada. This report talk about “current statistics, an overview of apprenticeship in Canada, information about the Aboriginal experience in apprenticeship, barriers to apprenticeship, case studies, and recommendations”.

It can be found here: http://www.worldcat.org/formats-editions/43282033

This organization is a leader in the trades and are very aware of the indigenous community and how important they are to the Trades.  They have done a  lot of research and promotion regarding Indigenous Awareness and the Construction community.  This is a booklet that they published regarding what it means to be an ally.

https://buildingtrades.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/BT-IndigAlly_Booklet_WebCopy_ENG.pdf

M2 P3 –  Land Restitution

Working on Indigenous land I think that I would like to learn more about Land Restitution, what Indigenous Peoples can do to make sure that their land is protected while companies are working on it.  I also wanted to learn more about how land acknowledgement plays a part in this.

This post talks about Land Back from and indigenous perspective.

It was interesting learning more about it through a USA lens and how they also see what their Canadian counterparts have gone through.

Some resources that also helps to understand land back are:

https://thediscourse.ca/environment/building-pipeline-indigenous-land-complicated-even-if-you-own

The following video I found quite intersting because it is from a large corporation trying to incorporate indigenous culture while working on Indigenous land.  They talked about using Western science and Indigenous knowledge and coming together to work and build on the land.

M2 P4 – Ironworkers

There has been strong link between Ironworkers and Indigenous communities.  Some of it seems a little once sided as it comes from Unions.  An example of this would be the information found in some of the websites of Ironworker Unions such as this webiste:

https://ironworkerslocal97.com/about/aboriginal/

However, I also came across an interesting lecture from Dr. Alan Downey.

As well as some extra information about Ironworkers.

From CBC:

How Mohawk ironworkers from Kahnawake helped build New York’s skyline

From Cornell University

Native ironworkers’ tradition continues on North Campus

M2 P5 – Online learning

The Information and Communications Technology Council published a report about online learning in Canada.  In it there is a small section about the challenges that indigenous communities face when learning online.  The report can be accessed here:

Distance Education Report

A great online resource that I found had a lot of information on education and indigenous culture.  This I found particularly interesting because they talk about the some of the different models of education that Athabasca University created for teaching and learning in an Indigenous environment.

Indigenous Distance Education

I’m interested in doing more research on the trades and the construction industry with respect to Indigenous Peoples.

I’ve started looking and found the following website that has a number of articles and information related to Indigenous Peoples in the Trades.  I’m also creating a course at work about indigenous awareness in the workplace from a construction lens.  So most of my websites will be geared towards that topic.

M1 P1 Resource 1:

Buildingtrades.ca

This has a number of resources pertaining to indigenous literacy and how to include diversity especially indigenous culture into a predominantly Eurocentric workforce.

M1 P2 Resource 2:

https://indigenousworks.ca/en

A non-profit company that aims to teach corporations about workplace inclusion and indigenous inclusion strategies in the Canadian corporations

M1 P3 Resource 3:

I found this resource regarding education system and how to decolonize education.  From their website they talk about “This unique online education series is geared toward university instructors with the goal to increase their understanding of the colonial roots of the academy, the movement to transform universities to be more inclusive of Indigenous peoples and inspire them to move their toward decolonizing their pedagogies.”

https://teaching.uwo.ca/teaching/indigenous-tl-resources.html

M1 P4 Resource 4:

A website dedicated to offering indigenous training to individuals and companies across Canada.  They have a number of resources that are relevant and important.

Indigenous Awareness Training Canada

M1 P5 Resource 5:

Not sure if this is an educational resource, but I had the privilege of listening to Norm while working in the ESL industry.  He has such an amazing story and such an in-depth knowledge of what the indigenous community faces.

M1 P6 Resource 6:

A great resource on high level information about indigenous awareness.

Indigenous Awareness 101

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