Indigenous Studies

MacEwan University welcomes Indigenous peoples from across the world as our students, faculty, staff, and guests. This research guide is intended to assist learners with finding and accessing information by and about Indigenous peoples. If you have any questions or would like to connect in person or online for a consultation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

MacEwan University is situated in Treaty 6 Territory as well as within the Métis homelands and Métis Nation of Alberta Region 4. The First Peoples of these lands include the nehiyaw (Cree), the Denesuliné (Dene), the Nakota Sioux (Stoney), the Anishinaabe (Salteaux), the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), the Métis, the Inuit, and many others. Their histories, cultures, and languages have shaped and been shaped by these lands from time immemorial, and hold crucial teachings for all of us for understanding and upholding good relations with each other as well as with the natural world and all its inhabitants.

Acknowledging traditional territory is one part of recognizing and moving beyond colonization, and strengthening our relationships in a positive way. Through this acknowledgment, we honour the ancestors and children who have been buried here. We honour the missing and murdered Indigenous women, men, and two-spirited. We honour the process of ongoing truth-telling and healing for all human beings. We are reminded, in these ways, that we are all treaty people with rights and responsibilities to one another and the world we inhabit.

Starting

What topics interest you? Whose voices are you hoping to learn from? Try to generate some keywords, both general and more specific, that relate to both your topic and authorship. For more information on terminology, see these related guides:

• UBC Library's First Nations and Indigenous Studies: Terminology Resources
• SFU Library's Indigenous Terminology 

Finding

Try your keywords in the databases on the Articles, Books, and Videos page. For a broader search, try them in the main library search box to find books, ebooks, videos, reports, and more.

Evaluating

The voices of Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in academia, government, healthcare, and other industries. Because colonization has and continues to shape what is created and shared, information about Indigenous peoples is often created by non-Indigenous people. Strategies to help locate Indigenous authorship include:

• Checking resources for author self-identification. If not present, then look up the author online to see if they have self-identified elsewhere. 
• Looking for Indigenous faculty member homepages or mentions on university websites.
• Exploring Indigenous publishers. See UBC's Library Guide on Indigenous Publishers, Distributors & News Media

For more information, visit our Research Basics pages.