Conference session

This session will bring focus on the ongoing influence that colonial culture has over conventional educational practices. As I see it, the governing principle undergirding colonial culture is relationship denial that comes in multiple forms. This colonial cultural practice of relationship denial has become normalized in educational institutions and gets in the way of possibilities for meaningful educational transformation. A central question guiding this session is: What does it take to guide someone to unlearn colonial forms of relationship denial and proceed differently? As a researcher, I have come to see that such unlearning requires the facilitation of a transformation in how people experience knowledge and knowing and how they think of themselves as human beings. I will discuss what I call 'knowledge experiments' as sustained opportunities for people to experience knowledge and knowing in unique ways and find meaning through attending to Indigenous wisdom practices guided by the ethic of relational renewal. I will share tangible examples of creative, arts-based and multimedia knowledge experiments that include walking pedagogies, a walking vodcast series, countermapping, and winter count symbol making. Educators at all levels will benefit from this session.