Global Indigenous Histories

HIST 207/3.0

Overview

This course will survey various case studies that explore the causes, conflicts, and consequences that have occurred wherever Indigenous communities have encountered colonizing invaders. Significant areas of inquiry will explore the growth and evolution of ideas of Indigeneity and Indigenous history, both in society and historiographically; how these concepts have changed overtime; the legacies and ongoing impacts of colonialism in Canada and around the world; and how and why the concept of global Indigenous history might be productive or problematic.  

Today, Indigenous experiences, issues, and assertions comprise one of the globe’s most intractable, pained, and politicized conversations. Around the world, Indigenous communities – individually and collectively – press for rights to land, water, resources, political sovereignty, treaty rights, government recognition, and various forms of autonomy. The Indigenous present bears witness to long histories of colonialism and post-colonialism, typically associated with, but not limited to the Age of European Exploration or Invasion, which occurred from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. However, this present also illustrates that colonization flowed from multiple directions, not only from Europe west across the Atlantic, and that Indigenous communities across the globe experienced, and in many cases, continue to experience invasion, exploitation, and dispossession.  

This course will seek to draw together examples of historical and modern Indigenous experiences, movements, and ongoing struggles, using relevant case studies and new methodological approaches to the subject. By considering multiple geographic contexts, including the Roman invasion of Gaul, Canada, and Taiwan, and different, but frequently overlapping themes and dimensions of Indigenous history in a global context, this course will ask students to grapple with questions and definitions of Indigeneity, the concept and legacies of colonization, ongoing decolonization and reconciliation efforts, and how we, as historians, can approach, understand, and further explore these questions, legacies, and movements.

Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing this course, students will be able to 

  1. Examine the concepts of global Indigeneity and global Indigenous history and critically reflect on how and why these concepts might be useful and/or problematic;  

  2. Explore the causes, conflicts, and consequences that have occurred wherever Indigenous communities have encountered colonizing invaders throughout history; 

  3. Discuss examples of historical and modern Indigenous experiences, movements, and ongoing struggles, using relevant case studies and new methodological approaches; 

  4. Critically evaluate and interpret primary and secondary source materials, considering how author positionality, as well as the time and location of the publication, can impact authors’ perspectives;  

  5. Analyze evidence and historiographical information to engage in well-researched and respectful discussions and to develop and support historical arguments about Indigeneity and Indigenous history, as well as the evolution of these concepts in a global context; 

  6. Centre and highlight Indigenous scholarship, knowledge, writing, and cultural production; and 

  7. Build a “historian’s toolkit” to produce an academic paper - retrieve primary and secondary sources, differentiate between academic and non-academic secondary sources, and provide accurate and properly formatted citations in formal papers.

Topics 

  • Course Introduction 
  • Module 1 – Historical Methods, Indigenous Histories, and Re-Reading the Colonial Archive 
  • Module 2 – Struggles for Sovereignty and Indigenous Resistance 
  • Module 3 – Recognition, Reconciliation, and Settler-Colonialism 
  • Module 4 – Reflection 

Terms

Winter 2025
Course Dates
Delivery Mode
Online

Evaluation

45% - Discussions (3x15%)
20% - Essay
5% - Short Reflection
30% - Final Research Paper and Short Reflection

**Evaluation Subject to change**

Live Sessions

This course has optional live sessions (e.g., webinars, synchronous activities, etc.).  

Textbook and Materials

All required and recommended materials will be available through onQ. 

Time Commitment

Students can expect to spend on average about 8-10 hours per week completing relevant readings, assignments, and course activities.