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 to find ways to engage meaningfully with indigenous knowledge. The Native Studies PhD programme 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 the experiences of the programme, its conceptual design and evolution, and reflections of elders, students and administrators who have been involved with different aspects of the programme. Students report deeply transformative journeys in working with elders who transmit indigenous knowledge. At the same time, tensions surface as the PhD programme mediates these experiences in terms that are recognisable to the Western academy.