The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Indigenous activism have made many Canadians uncomfortably aware of how little they know about First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. In Braided Learning, Lenape-Potowatomi scholar and educator Susan Dion shares her approach to learning and teaching about Indigenous histories and perspectives.

Métis leader Louis Riel illuminated the connection between creativity and identity in his declaration, “My people will sleep for a hundred years, but when they awake, it will be the artists who give them their spirits back.” Using the power of stories and artwork, Dion offers respectful ways to address challenging topics including settler-colonialism, treaties, the Indian Act, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and the drive for self-determination.

Braided Learning draws on Indigenous knowledge to make sense of a difficult past, decode unjust conditions in the present, and work toward a more equitable future.

Susan D. Dion's profile page

Susan D. Dion is a Lenape-Potawatomi scholar with Irish-Quebecois ancestry and associate vice-president of Indigenous initiatives at York University. She is widely consulted by community groups, workplaces, and institutions on methods for building more equitable, respectful relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. She is the author of Braiding Histories: Learning from Aboriginal People’s Experiences and Perspectives.

“Dion appeals to the reader to be responsible listeners, who, from an Indigenous episteme, do not interrupt the speaker, and instead listen to the whole story, from which they can gain their own insights about themselves. From this, Dion positions settler educators as responsible for learning and teaching the true history of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples for reconciliation to be possible.”

Historical Studies in Education / Revue d’histoire De l’éducation