Vitality and teaching Indigenous literatures: A métissage

Authors

  • Adrian Downey Mount Saint Vincent University
  • Susan Legge Mount Saint Vincent University
  • Yelena Smith Mount Saint Vincent University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26443/mje/rsem.v60i2.10287

Keywords:

Indigenous literature, métissage, teaching Indigenous literature, humour, vitality, curriculum studies

Abstract

Methodologically framed as métissage, this work shares our experiences of teaching Indigenous literatures in K–12 and post-secondary education. Using personal narratives, we situate the research on teaching Indigenous literatures within our geographical context, Mi’kma’ki. We share how we came to this work as teachers and scholars, then discuss our journeys as readers of Indigenous literatures. We then highlight our teaching practices based on our own experiences, such as circlework and centring orality. We conclude by pointing to humour as a pathway to making the classroom a vital space.

Author Biographies

Adrian Downey, Mount Saint Vincent University

is an associate professor of education at Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU). He holds undergraduate degrees in music and education from Bishop‘s University, a Master of Arts in Education from MSVU, and a PhD in Education Studies from the University of New Brunswick. His research and teaching are in the areas of the philosophy of education, curriculum theory, and Indigenous education. adrian.downey@msvu.ca

Susan Legge, Mount Saint Vincent University

is currently pursuing a PhD in Curriculum Studies in the Nova Scotia Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Studies. She received her Master of Arts in Education at Mount Saint Vincent University, where her research explored the lived experiences of Nova Scotia teachers of Mi’kmaw Studies 11 as they worked to create anticolonial pedagogies of reconciliation for and with their students. Susan’s current research is focused on the effects of working conditions in Nova Scotia for teachers, particularly as those conditions increase the emotional labour expected from teachers. susan.legge1@msvu.ca

Yelena Smith, Mount Saint Vincent University

is currently pursuing a PhD in Educational Foundations and Leadership through the Inter-University Doctoral Program in Educational Studies. Her research explores the politics of safety and belonging in Nova Scotia public schools, with a particular focus on how educational policies and discourses shape the experiences of equity-deserving students and school communities. yelena.smith@msvu.ca

References

Akiwenzie-Damm, K., Assu, S., Mitchell, B., Qitsualik-Tinsley, R., Qitsualik-Tinsley, S., Robertson, D. A., Sinclair, N. J., Storm, J., Van Camp, R., Vermette, K., & Vowel, C. (2019). This place: 150 years retold (T. Audibert, K. Charles, G. M. B. Chomichuk, N. Donovan, S. B. Henderson, A. Lodwick, S. A. Ford, D. Yaciuk, R. Howe, & J. Storm, Illus.). HighWater Press.

Archibald, J. A. (1997). Coyote learns to make a storybasket: The place of First Nations stories in education [Doctoral dissertation, Simon Frasier University]. SFU Summit Research Repository. https://summit.sfu.ca/item/7275

Banggollay, M. (2017). Poems. Poemhunter.com. https://www.poemhunter.com/melvin-banggollay/ebooks/?ebook=0&filename=melvin-banggollay-2017-7.pdf

Battiste, M. (2013). Decolonizing education: Nourishing the learning spirit. Purich Publishing Limited.

Battiste, M. (2016). Mi’kmaw symbolic literacy. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Visioning a Mi’kmaw humanities: Indigenizing the academy (pp. 123–148). Cape Breton University Press.

Belcourt, B.-R. (2019). This wound is a world. University of Minnesota Press.

Boldt, G. (2021). Theorizing vitality in the literacy classroom. Reading Research Quarterly, 56(2), 207–221. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.307

Brake, J. (2021, June 2021). Ktaqmkuk. Maisonneuve. https://maisonneuve.org/article/2021/06/29/ktaqmkuk/

Bryant, R. (2017). The homing place: Indigenous and settler literary legacies of the Atlantic. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Buxman, K. (2001). Today’s health crisis: A laughing matter? Neonatal Network, 20(8), 63–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0730-0832.20.8.63

Cariou, W. (2016). Who is the text in this class? Story, archive, and pedagogy in Indigenous contexts. In D. Reder & L. M. Morra (Eds.), Learn, teach, challenge: Approaching Indigenous literatures (pp. 467–476). Wilfred Laurier University Press.

Demby, G., & Marisol Meraji, S. (Hosts). (2016, December 14). Hold up! Time for an explanatory comma [Audio podcast episode]. In Code Switch. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2016/12/14/504482252/-hold-up-time-for-an-explanatory-comma

Donald, D. (2012). Indigenous métissage: A decolonizing research sensibility. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(5), 533–555. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2011.554449

Downey, A. M. (2018). The metamorphic, the subtle, and the awkward: Three thoughts on Indigenization. Proceedings of the Atlantic Universities’ Teaching Showcase, 22, 1–5. https://ojs.library.dal.ca/auts/article/view/10181

Downey, A. M. (2022). (Re)envisioning childhoods with Mi’kmaw literatures. Journal of Childhood Studies, 47(1), 29–44. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs202219949

Elliott, A. (2017, September 7). CanLit is a raging dumpster fire. Open Book. https://web.archive.org/web/20260225224927/https://open-book.ca/Columnists/CanLit-is-a-Raging-Dumpster-Fire

Elliott, A. (2019). A mind spread out on the ground. Doubleday Canada.

Figueroa, M., & Shawgo, K. (2022). “You can't read your way out of racism”: Creating anti-racist action out of education in an academic library. Reference Services Review, 50(1), 25–39. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-06-2021-0025

Fortin, M. A. (2016). “Ought we to teach these”? Ethical, responsible, and Aboriginal cultural protocols in the classroom. In D. Reder & L. M. Morra (Eds.), Learn, teach, challenge: Approaching Indigenous literatures (pp. 459–465). Wilfred Laurier University Press.

Graveline, F. J. (1998). Circleworks: Transforming Eurocentric consciousness. Fernwood.

Hanson, A. J. (2020). Literatures, communities, and learning: Conversations with Indigenous writers. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Hanson, A. J., King, A.-L., Phipps, H., & Spring, E. (2020). Gathering stories, gathering pedagogies: Animating Indigenous knowledges through story. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 32(3–4), 63–87. https://doi.org/10.1353/ail.2020.0018

Hasebe-Ludt, E., Chambers, C., & Leggo, C. (2009). Life writing and literary métissage as an ethos for our times. Peter Lang.

Joe, R. (1996). Song of Rita Joe: Autobiography of a Mi'kmaq poet. University of Nebraska Press.

Jonnie, B. (2019). If I go missing (N. Shannacappo, Illus.). James Lorimer & Company.

Justice, D. H. (2018). Why Indigenous literatures matter. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Koops, S. (2018). As long as the grass grows: Walking, writing, and singing treaty education. In E. HasebeLudt & C. Leggo (Eds.), Canadian curriculum studies: A métissage of inspiration/imagination/interconnection (pp. 2–10). Canadian Scholars Press.

Kovach, M. (2021). Indigenous methodologies: Characteristics, conversations, and contexts (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press.

Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches. Crossing Press.

Maracle, L. (2017). My conversations with Canadians. Book*hug Press.

Miller, J. L. (2005). Sounds of silence breaking: Women, autobiography, curriculum. Peter Lang.

Mills, C. W. (2007). White ignorance. In S. Sullivan & N. Tuana (Eds.), Race and epistemologies of ignorance (pp. 13–38). SUNY Press.

Munroe, E. A., Lunney-Borden, L., Murray-Orr, A., Toney, D., & Meader, J. (2013). Decolonizing Aboriginal education in the 21st century. McGill Journal of Education, 48(2), 317–337. https://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/8985

Nxumalo, F., & Cedillo, S. (2017). Decolonizing place in early childhood studies: Thinking with Indigenous onto-epistemologies and Black feminist geographies. Global Studies of Childhood, 7(2), 99–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610617703831

Paul, D. N. (2022). We were not the savages: Collision between European and Native American civilizations (4th ed.). Fernwood.

Pictou, S. M. (2017). Decolonizing Mi’kmaw memory of treaty, L’sɨtkuk’s learning with allies in struggle for food and lifeways [Doctoral dissertation, Dalhousie University]. DalSpace. https://web.archive.org/web/20240507183341/https://dalspace.library.dal.ca// handle/10222/72811

Pinar, W. F. (1994). Autobiography, politics and sexuality: Essays in curriculum theory 1972–1992. Peter Lang.

Pinar, W. F. (2023). A praxis of presence in curriculum theory: Advancing currere against cultural crises in education. Routledge.

Reder, D. (2022). Autobiography as Indigenous intellectual tradition: Cree and Métis âcimisowina. Willfred Laurier University Press.

Reder, D., & Morra, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Learn, teach, challenge: Approaching Indigenous literatures. Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Reid, B. (2020). Positionality and research: “Two-Eyed Seeing” with a rural Ktaqmkuk Mi’kmaw community. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920910841

Robinson, M. (2016). Mi’kmaw stories in research. In M. Battiste (Ed.), Visioning a Mi’kmaw humanities: Indigenizing the academy (pp. 56–68). Cape Breton University Press.

Styres, S. D. (2019). Literacies of land: Decolonizing narratives, storying and literature. In L. T. Smith, E. Tuck, & K. W. Yang (Eds.), Indigenous and decolonizing studies in education: Mapping the long view (pp. 51–59). Routledge.

Tattrie, J. (2018, Winter). The emergence of Wabanaki literature. Atlantic Books Today, 88, 7–8. https://issuu.com/atlanticbookstoday/docs/abt88-lr

Tuck, E. [@tuckeve]. (2019, June 19). I was just asked by a colleague how I facilitate Q & A sessions [Post]. X. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1141501422611128320.html

Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, 1(1). https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630

Vermette, K. (2015). North End love songs. J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing.

Vermette, K. (2021). The strangers. Penguin Random House Canada.

Vowel, C. (2016). Indigenous writes: A guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit issues in Canada. HighWater Press.

Downloads

Published

2026-07-13

How to Cite

Downey, A., Legge, S., & Smith, Y. (2026). Vitality and teaching Indigenous literatures: A métissage . McGill Journal of Education / Revue Des Sciences De l’éducation De McGill, 60(2), 38–60. https://doi.org/10.26443/mje/rsem.v60i2.10287

Issue

Section

Articles