Course Offerings for 2016/17

Through film clips and print media the depiction of Aboriginal people is traced from the silent film era to the present day. Students will assess the social and historical impacts of these images and consider the role that film can play in the future of Aboriginal people.

Winter 2017
Credits: 0.5

• Waterloo campus: 4-6:50 p.m. R
• Brantford campus: 2:30-3:50 p.m. TR

Provides students with an overview of the discipline of Indigenous Studies including the history, cultures, and experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada. (Cross-listed as CT120.)

Fall 2016; Winter 2017
Credits: 0.5

• Waterloo campus (fall): 4-5:20 p.m. MW
• Brantford Section 1 (fall): 1-2:20 p.m. WF, Darren S. Thomas
• Brantford Section 2 (fall): 1-2:20 p.m. TR, Gary Warrick
• Waterloo campus (winter): Dates TBA.
• Brantford Section 3 (winter): 2:30-3:50 p.m. TR, Kimberley Anderson

This course explores the complex issues of Indigenous identity and government policy implications, land, labor, economic and survival strategies, as well as the continuing tensions between issues of participation and social exclusion on one hand, and autonomy and self-development on the other.

Fall 2016
Credits: 0.5

• 4-5:20 p.m. TR

The popular image of Indigenous people has been shaped by anthropology and the wider academy. This course will explore the interaction between Indigenous peoples and anthropology and archaeology. The course offers a brief history of anthropology, followed by examination of such topics as indigeneity, Indigenous knowledge, cultural and intellectual property, museums, archaeology and repatriation, biological research, applied anthropology, ethics in anthropology, and community-based research. The value of anthropology to Indigenous people will be debated and discussed. (Cross-listed as CT205.)

Winter 2017
Credits: 0.5

• 10-11:20 a.m. TR

This course explores the role of gender in Indigenous communities from theoretical perspectives and through lived experiences of Indigenous peoples. Students will learn about Indigenous theories of gender, including Indigenous feminism, queer/two-spirit theory and work on Indigenous masculinities. The work of Indigenous peoples to address patriarchy through writing, political action and the revitalization of traditions and artistic creativity will be examined as evidence of the struggle to return to the respectful egalitarian traditions where women were valued for their contributions.

Fall 2016
Credits: 0.5

• 1- 2:20 p.m. TR

Communication in Indigenous languages is based on cultural interaction, tradition and history. Fluent language speakers will introduce a basic understanding of cultural concepts through language.

Winter 2017
Credits: 0.5

• 7-9:50 p.m. M

This course will examine the social and cultural features of the Haudenosaunee people from within an Iroquoian understanding of culture and tradition. Oral history, contemporary realities, current scholarship and contemporary creative expressions will be explored in a way that recognizes the similarities and differences between Haudenosaunee communities.

Fall 2016
Credits: 0.5

• 4-5:20 p.m. MW

Shows how human life depends on complex systems of cultural knowledge about the natural world. Topics will include Indigenous peoples’ biological classification and nomenclatural systems, ethnobiology, and Indigenous explanatory models of environmental systems and the application of this knowledge in practice.

Fall 2016
Credits: 0.5

• 11:30 a.m. - 2:20 p.m. T

Traditional education teaches by experience, experimentation, trial and error, by independent observation of nature and human behaviour, and through voluntary community sharing of information, story, song, and ritual. Most importantly, local elders and traditional knowledge systems are autonomous in comparison to a strict Western education model. This course explores contemporary written texts on Indigenous pedagogy and includes learning through listening to storytellers and/or elders who visit the classroom.

Winter 2017
Credits: 0.5

• 5:30-6:50 p.m. MW

This course investigates the relationship between Indigenous communities and settlers from first contact to contemporary times. Themes including colonialism, sovereignty, treaties and land rights will be examined using historical and modern case studies from around the world.

Winter 2017
Credits: 0.5

• 1-2:20 p.m. TR

This course will introduce students to basic plant medicines according to local and traditional Indigenous knowledge. Students will work with knowledge keepers from Six Nations of the Grand River to learn how to identify plants that are local to the area and to understand their basic medicinal uses. Harvesting, drying and making tinctures will be covered, as will protocols around traditional Indigenous knowledge in relation to working with plant medicines. Students will be expected to fulfill twenty community service learning hours, as there will be an experiential component involving working on the land with the Six Nations knowledge keepers. Work from this course will also contribute to the development of a medicine garden behind the Laurier Brantford Aboriginal Student House.

This is a community service-learning course.

Fall 2016
Credits: 0.5

• 8:30-11:20 a.m. T, Kimberley Anderson