Indigenous Literature Celebrated at UTM
UTM offers many courses and texts on Indigenous literature and appreciating these works, while recognizing implicit bias, is one step towards reconciliation.
Our UTM campus, located on the historical Indigenous lands of the Secena, Huron-Wendat, and Mississaugas of the Credit, has a history of honoring Indigenous culture on campus. In 2018, one of UTM’s newest buildings was opened. MN, or Maanjiwe Nendamowinan, means “gathering of minds” in Anishinaabemowin, and was named in consultation with the Mississaugas of the First Credit Nation. In 2023, the Office of Indigenous Initiatives recruited volunteers to help erect a Tipi and wooden lodge just off Principal Road. The structures have since been used for ceremonies, events, and the lodge even hosts classes. The Indigenous community on campus also holds powwows every year, which is a celebration of Indigenous culture.
UTM provides many courses surrounding Indigenous culture, with some centered on Indigenous literature specifically. One such course, ENG274 Indigenous Literature and Storytelling, focuses on the idea that reconciliation starts with acknowledging the past, and working to make the future better. The course looks at different texts with themes like cultural genocide, growing up in residential schools/ on reservations, different forms of assault, suicide, etc. But they also tell tales of resilience, determination, and the unfaltering community that Indigenous people have created for themselves over centuries.
ENG274 goes through multiple texts that have Indigenous themes/ stories, or were written by Indigenous peoples. One of these novels is The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, a Metis author. It is a fictional dystopian novel where Indigenous people were hunted for their bone marrow, which had magical powers that others wanted to take away so they could possess those powers themselves. This is, of course, a metaphor for the cultural genocide that Indigenous people faced for centuries in residential schools, where children were forcibly stripped of their identities, language, religion, and families.
Indian Horse was written by an Ojibway author, Richard Wagamese. It follows a young First Nations boy, Saul Indian Horse, who endures years of trauma at residential schools. He tries to escape multiple times and watches his siblings die after their attempts. However the book also demonstrates Saul’s resilience, as he learns to play hockey while in his residential school and quickly becomes talented. Unfortunately, the more famous Saul became, the more racial prejudice he faced, which led him to leave the game and confront the trauma that he’s carried throughout his life.
Professor Daniela Janes teaches literature courses like ENG274. When teaching this course, Professor Janes thinks, “It’s important for students to understand the way implicit bias can shape their reading practices and to understand that literary criticism (the way we read and write about texts) can work to re-entrench existing inequalities or to challenge them. By centering Indigenous scholarship, the course helps students to understand Indigenous ways of thinking about place, language, and relationality.” Understanding and appreciating the struggles that Indigenous peoples have to face daily, even in the twenty-first century, is just one step towards reconciliation. Reading novels and texts like these, written about the Indigenous experience, are a great way to start working towards that goal.
