Decolonizing education: Prof advocates for broader changes in Indigenous history

For decades, Prof. Marie Battiste has been battling for a more inclusive history curriculum in Canadian schools.

"Decolonizing is not just about taking education and making sure that Indigenous students have an opportunity to get through school," Battiste told Mainstreet P.E.I. host Angela Walker.

"Canadians need to have another education that unpacks the racism and systemic problems of the past."

Since the 1970s, Battiste has been working to decolonize education in Canada.

The history education most Canadians learned in school, when it came to Indigenous peoples, was incomplete and often inaccurate. The work to remedy that, to revise textbooks and curricula, is already underway in many provinces, in part thanks to Battiste's work.

She will discuss some of her experiences from her decades of advocacy, and take a look forward, in a talk at UPEI Monday night. She will be joined by Prof. James Youngblood Henderson, a lawyer who specializes in treaty rights, with whom she has co-authored two books.

The talk will be at MacDougall Hall starting at 6:30 p.m. Atlantic Time.

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