Introduction

Since 2015, institutions across the land we now call Canada have been increasingly engaged in reconciliation efforts as laid out in Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. While only three of the 94 Calls to Action are directed at libraries, the overarching theme of educational change resonates within all library sectors. Academic libraries are uniquely positioned both to engage in their own decolonising and Indigenising initiatives and to support those of their parent institutions. Caution should be taken, though, since often people and institutions seem to want to move quickly to reconciliation, as if it were a destination and not a journey. As Rhiannon Bennett [Musqueam] said during a panel discussion at Kwantlen Polytechnic University on 25 November 2020, you need to learn the truth before you can work on reconciliation.

This chapter presents some of that truth by providing a brief background on the colonisation of the country known today as Canada and how that colonisation was carried out through education. Part of this is learning what we mean by Indigenous, and who the three Indigenous Peoples in Canada are. We also share our learning on what reconciliation means, and how legal documents set up a framework to support our work. Complementing this, we unpack decolonising and Indigenising in relation to each other. This leads to a section on education, imparting why Indigenisation initiatives are important both within post-secondary institutions and in the libraries that serve them. We conclude our chapter by sharing our stories as Indigenous academic librarians contributing towards Indigenising our institutions.

Before we begin

Following the government definition and current practice (Joseph [Gwawaenuk], 2018; Justice [Cherokee Nation], 2018; Vowel [Métis], 2016; Younging [Opaskwayak Cree], 2018), the term Indigenous will be used when discussing First Nations, Métis and Inuit. Older and outdated terms may be used in context when discussing practices or as used by an author. Additionally, where possible, the name of an author's community or Nation has been included the first time we cite them. We are responsible for any omissions or mistakes and apologise in advance for them. We have used Gregory Younging's 2018 work Elements of Indigenous Style (EIS) to compose this chapter; where there are discrepancies in publication styles, we have followed EIS.