Indigenous Knowledges can be understood as complex and sophisticated ways of knowing based in relational ontologies (i.e., how we understand the world) that meaningfully inform positive and mutually beneficial interactions and relationships with natural surroundings. Through holistic approaches to “knowing, thinking, and being,” Indigenous Knowledges can play a significant role in education: by informing policy, practice, and decision-making for the benefit of all Creation and interdependent harmony within it. The Forum will highlight examples of how the work of Truth and Reconciliation is being advanced through a focus on Indigenous Knowledges. 

Sample presentation ideas

• Local/regional Indigenous scholarship: projects, reports/ studies  
• Indigenous community profile  
• Indigenous organization profile 
• Cultural teachings (e.g., Seven Grandfathers, Thanksgiving Address) 
• Advancing Indigenous knowledge in the academy 
• Centring Indigenous knowledge through scholarship 
• Decolonizing/Indigenizing place names 
• Advancing Indigenous nationhood and educational sovereignty 
• Indigenous language reclamation and revitalization 
• Decolonizing the academy (Indigenous curriculum and pedagogies) 
• Elders’ Talking Circles 
• Indigenous people in the academy

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities for learners in all walks of life, especially for Indigenous people, who have long struggled with gross inequities (especially in such areas as digital connection and access). Nonetheless, Indigenous people remain resilient and continue to rebuild and improve education and society, grounded and balanced by the tenets of Indigenous Knowledges to address and transform historical and contemporary injustices using Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Sample presentation ideas

• Impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous populations, and responses 
• Indigenous housing 
• Missing and murdered Indigenous people 
• Food security/sovereignty 
• Cultural resiliency  
• Indigenous pedagogies: storytelling and oral traditions 
• Media as an education tool supporting awareness and resistance (e.g., films, radio shows, documentaries, concerns, projects, and productions)

Understanding the similarities and differences between Indigeneity and the promotion of EDI—as well as their intersection—is critically important to avoid the conflation of the two.  Society must be equipped with culturally appropriate opportunities to advance the work of equity, remove barriers, and increase access and representation of different yet similar target groups. The Forum will provide opportunities to explore challenges and opportunities within EDI. 

Sample presentation Ideas

• Indigenous education: a rights-based framework 
• Understanding the differences between Indigenous initiatives and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion  
• Indigenous identity affirmation (i.e., ethnic fraud) and its consequences

The state of our wounded world today calls for an urgent re-examination of how we make economic decisions and interact with our environment. The holistic Indigenous principle known as “Seven Generations” thinking, where all decisions are made with consideration of their impact on future generations, can serve as a useful framework for that re-examination. This Forum will provide the opportunity for attendees to understand and engage with Indigenous Knowledges in responding to Sustainable Development Goals, which can help provide a blueprint for peace, prosperity, and balance for everyone on the planet.

Sample presentation Ideas

• Land-based learning 
• Moving beyond a land acknowledgement 
• Governance models 
• Wampum belt teachings 
• Environment and sustainability 
• Correlation of Indigenous and environmental health

Presenters may showcase creative activities or works of art that align with one of the Forum subthemes, (e.g., plays, performances, recitations, poems, photographs, visual art work, dramatic arts works, music compositions, films, and videos).

50-minute timeslots will be available to all presenters, unless additional time is requested.

Submission requirements:  

Provide a summary of your presentation (up to 200 words). 

Indicate any specific or special logistical requirements to support your presentation.

Presenters are invited to share a story (about 20 minutes) about their experience(s) in relation to one of the Forum subthemes.  

Participants will be invited to respond and share their own connections and learnings, using their own short stories (30 minutes).

Submission requirements: 

Provide a title and description of your story subject (up to 200 words).

Presenters are invited to share information in an interactive workshop that will advance and enrich skill and proficiency within any area of Forum focus. 

Presenters are invited to present for 30 minutes, leaving 25 minutes for discussion and questions.  

Submission requirements: 

Please identify workshop title, focus area/ subject matter, and objectives (up to 200 words).

Presenters are invited to provide a summary of research or a project through a poster presentation that pertains to a Forum sub-theme. 

Presenters will be invited to discuss their work with interested parties and entertain questions. 

Submission requirements: 

Poster to include a title, summary, outcomes, diagrams (up to 200 words).

Oral (e.g., lecture style) presentations (30 minutes) are invited in relation to Forum subthemes, followed by a discussion or question period (20 minutes).  

Submission requirements:

Please identify the presentation title and focus area/subject matter (up to 200 words).

Presentations are welcome within a panel format, in alignment with Forum subthemes.   

Presentations are welcome from a ) individual presenters, and b ) pre-formed groups: 

a. Individual presenters will be assigned as a member of a three-person panel in relation to one of the Forum thematic areas. A panel facilitator will be assigned to each panel group to introduce the presenters and their topics of interest. The three panelists will be provided 10 minutes each to present, leaving 20 minutes for discussion and questions from the audience. 

Submission requirements: 

Please provide your name, affiliation, the presentation title and focus area/subject matter (up to 200 words). 

b. Preformed groups will constitute a panel of three, with one person designated as the panel lead. Each panelist will be provided 10 minutes to present, leaving 20 minutes for discussion and questions from the audience.  

Submission requirements: 

Please provide the presenters’ names, affiliations, presentation title, and focus area/subject matter (up to 200 words). 

Name(s), pronouns, contact information, affiliation, and positionality (e.g., Indigenous or Ally). If you are an Ally, please highlight how Indigenous people/Nations are associated with your work. 

• Biography of all presenters, limited to 50 words each. 

• Indicate which subtheme will be addressed:  

1. Indigenous Knowledges as a framework for Reconciliation and educational sovereignty; 
2. Building back from COVID-19: Innovations & Resiliencies; 
3. Understanding the differences and convergences between Indigenous Initiatives and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion; and 
4. Indigenous Knowledges and Sustainable Development Goals 

• State preferred format of presentation:  

1. Creative work 
2. Oral traditions: Telling and sharing stories  
3. Workshop 
4. Poster presentation 
5. Oral presentation 
6. Panel presentation 

• Title of the presentation   

• Proposal summary (200 words or less) that includes the subtheme to be addressed and an outline of the presentation's relevance to the academy and local Indigenous communities and organizations. 

• Presentations will be selected with input from a selection committee that will include representation from local Indigenous communities and organizations and the Office of Indigenous Initiatives at Western University. 
• Preference will be given to presentations that include Indigenous people in the team (e.g., Indigenous student researchers, youth, Elders, and knowledge keepers with lived experiences).  
• The following criteria will be used in evaluating proposals: 
• Completion of all submission requirements 
• Relevance to the Forum’s central theme and subthemes  
• Significance and originality 
• Clarity of research statement 
• Clarity and organization of written proposal summary