Case Stories of Indigenous Decolonization: Grassroots Community-Based Education for Reconciliation on the Canadian Prairies

Introduction In Canada’s past, education was used by colonial forces to perpetrate genocide on Indigenous Peoples through residential schools which stripped children of language, culture, and identity (TRC, 2015). Today, formal systems of education are attempting to move in the opposite direction, Indigenizing curricula, teaching the truth of colonial history, decolonizing classrooms, and supporting students to reclaim identities. However, students do not exist in a vacuum. At the end of the day, they go home to families and communities where adult learning has not kept pace. Parents and community members can remain ignorant at best, and resistant or hostile at worst, and this is particularly true in Canada’s rural prairies (Denis, 2007; Green, 2006; Lam & Humphreys, 2022; MacDonald, 2021; Philips-Beck et al., 2021; Schick, 2014). Community members make “moves to innocence” (Tuck & Yang, 2012) to resist hearing uncomfortable truths and being held accountable for current inequities. Yet education remains a key tool in fostering social change (Sinclair, 2023). In Canada and elsewhere where colonialism has been a shaping force, rural places are undergoing significant changes that carry implications for both education and decolonization. In contexts marked by economic loss, population aging, shrinking infrastructure and services, youth out-migration, limited resources, and climate change (ISEDC, 2024), there are distinct challenges and opportunities for decolonization and reconciliation efforts. While formal systems are working to change knowledge, curriculum, and pedagogy, informal (grassroots) initiatives are needed to educate the general public. This focus is particularly important as rural areas remain understudied in educational research. Methods & Data Sources This presentation shares multiple case studies (Yin, 2009) of rural community-based grassroots education. Data sources included recorded interviews with Indigenous Elders, Chiefs, founders, participants, and volunteers, with supplemental artifacts from participants and media. Results Cases explore a marathon from a former Indigenous residential school to a reserve, honouring students who did not survive while educating non-Indigenous runners (Reconciliation Run, 2024), a prairie church recording Indigenous elders’ stories and songs to preserve language and teachings (Weselake, n.d.), a land sharing network between Indigenous Peoples and settlers (Jeffers-Bezan, 2022), Indigenous content creators online (Cole, 2021), and others. Together, these case studies explore how Indigenous and settler communities are educating community members outside of formal education systems. 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