This document outlines the syllabus for a university course called "Indigenous Ecological Ways of Knowing" taught by Dr. Zoe Todd. The course will explore the experiences of indigenous groups around the world and examine how colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy have impacted indigenous communities and their relationships with the environment. It will take an intersectional approach in analyzing solidarities between indigenous groups and how indigenous cosmologies differ from dominant Western societies. The first class includes introductions and an activity where students reflect on indigenous peoples in the territory where they live.

1. “Indigenous Ecological Ways of
Knowing”
INDG 2015A|Fall 2020|Instructor: Dr. Zoe Todd
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology &
Anthropology

2. Today’s Outline
§ Introductions
§ Course introduction
§ Short activity
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

3. Indigenous Peoples
§ “Indigenous peoples are inheritors and
practitioners of unique cultures and ways
of relating to people and the environment.
They have retained social, cultural,
economic and political characteristics that
are distinct from those of the dominant
societies in which they live. Despite their
cultural differences, indigenous peoples
from around the world share common
problems related to the protection of their
rights as distinct peoples.” – United
Nations
(https://www.un.org/development/desa/indi
genouspeoples/about-us.html)
https://www.un.
org/developme
nt/desa/indigen
ouspeoples/ab
out-us.html
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

4. Indigenous peoples (con’t)
§ “Indigenous peoples are recognized as being among
the world’s most vulnerable, disadvantaged and
marginalized peoples. Spread across the world from
the Artic to the South Pacific, they number, at a rough
estimate, more than 370 million in some 90 countries.
While they constitute approximately five per cent of
the world’s population, indigenous peoples make up
15 per cent of the world’s poor and one-third of the
world’s extremely poor.10” (United Nations OHCHR
2013, p. 3)
| source:
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/IPeoples/UNDRIPManualForNHRIs.
pdf
| 10: Citation from: International Fund for Agricultural Development,
Engagement with Indigenous Peoples Policy, 2009
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

5. Indigenous Peoples (con’t)
§ “... Indigenous peoples each have unique and
distinctive cultures, languages, legal systems and
histories. Most indigenous peoples have a strong
connection to the environment and their traditional
lands and territories. They also often share legacies of
removal from traditional lands and territories,
subjugation, destruction of their cultures,
discrimination and widespread violations of their
human rights. Through centuries, they have suffered
from the non-recognition of their own political and
cultural institutions and the integrity of their cultures
has been undermined. Indigenous peoples are also
harmfully impacted by development processes, which
pose a grave threat to their continued existence.”
United Nations OHCHR 2013, p. 3)
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

6. 4th World: Manuel and Milando
(1970s)
§ “Mbutu Milando, who was for some time First
Secretary of the Tanzanian High Commission
in Ottawa, was the first diplomat to welcome a
closer relationship with the Indian people
through the National Indian Brotherhood. It
was Mbutu who first suggested to me the
concept and nature of the Fourth World—an
idea that grew into a framework for much of
my own thought.”
| Manuel, George. The Fourth World . University of Minnesota
Press. Kindle Edition.
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

7. Global Indigeneity
§ This course will explore experiences of
Indigenous groups around the Globe (The
Americas, Oceania/Pacific, Asia, Africa,
Siberia, Sápmi)
§ Thinking through the interconnected
environmental impacts of
empire/colonialism/capitalism/white
supremacy on self-determining Indigenous
groups in many regions
§ Relationality: between and within Indigenous
groups but also with the nonhuman world
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

8. Indigeneity as
solidarities/intersections
§ In this course, the focus will be on thinking
Indigeneity in terms of solidarities and intersections
of oppressions, genocides, histories of self-
determining Indigenous groups displaced or harmed
through Empire, Colonialism, White Supremacy, and
Capital.
§ In North America: explicitly thinking through
Indigeneity in terms of intersections of genocides in
Africa, the Middle Passage, and in the Americas.
§ Indigenous cosmologies, worldviews, laws,
knowledges that flow from groups who identify as
Indigenous
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

9. Activity
§ Reflect on Indigenous experiences in the
territories you currently occupy: who
identifies as Indigenous? Who is included in
this definition? Who is excluded? How does
dominant society where you are located
engage with Indigenous knowledges?
Copyright Dr. Zoe Todd 2020