""Within the Outsider": Challenges of an Indigenous pedagogue"

Abstract

I am Cyndy Baskin, marginalized Aboriginal woman. I am Cyndy Baskin, university instructor and PhD. candidate. I am made up of multiple identities.

Until recently, I never had teachers who were not non­ Native, readings that were not written by non-Native authors and fellow students who were not non-Native. I was always the only one who was "different". Being at school was painful. I was an isolated, persecuted, sad student. And yet, I learned how to read and write in these places and this became my escape from the hurt. No matter what was done to me, it could not stifle my desire to learn. The harder schooling became for me, the more I delved into my studies. The more I heard that I would not make it to university, the more I grew determined to do exactly that. Great damage was done - some of it has been repaired while some of it never will be. It is a part of who I am. There were many downs, drop outs and changes of direction, but education is clearly my calling.

My story is, of course, a familiar one for many Aboriginal people. Education has more often than not been our enemy - a major arm of colonialism. For me, this is a lived reality. Being in the academy and becoming an educator, then, is one of my most powerful acts of resistance and anti-colonial activity.