AlterNative

Abstract

An innovative scholarship led by Indigenous peoples is emerging worldwide with an emphasis on questioning the knowledge privileges and paradigms of the Western academy. One of the challenges of supporting new Indigenous scholarship within the Western academy is finding ways to engage meaningfully with Indigenous knowledge. The Native Studies Ph.D. program at Trent University, Ontario, Canada has designed the Bimaadiziwin/Atonhetseri:io option to provide students at an advanced level of study with an opportunity to apprentice with Elders and Indigenous Knowledge Holders. This paper reports on experiences of the program to date, its conceptual design and evolution, and refl ections of Elders, students and administrators who have been involved with different aspects of the program. Students report deeply transformative journeys in working with Elders who transmit Indigenous knowledge. At the same time, tensions surfaces as the Ph.D. program mediates these experiences in terms that are recognisable to the Western academy.