University of Pluriversity? Sarah Maddison, ‘Making space at the institutional table: Co-work and risk in the colonial university’, in Susan Nemec, Billie Lythberg, Christine Woods (eds), Settler Responsibility for Decolonisation, Routledge, 2024 | settler colonial studies blog

University of Pluriversity? Sarah Maddison, ‘Making space at the institutional table: Co-work and risk in the colonial university’, in Susan Nemec, Billie Lythberg, Christine Woods (eds), Settler Responsibility for Decolonisation, Routledge, 2024

29Aug24

Abstract: Over the past several decades, settler colonial universities have begun to grapple with their relationships with Indigenous peoples. Different contexts and histories have given rise to diverse approaches to the project of transforming universities, variously framed as decolonising, indigenising, or reconciling the university. With increasing momentum, these strategies are now altering curricula, changing research priorities, and shaping employment practices, structures, and traditions. This work is difficult: institutions founded in empire do not easily displace their Western knowledge systems to engage with the knowledge systems of Indigenous peoples; primarily white, patriarchal hierarchies do not easily reconfigure themselves to make space for Indigenous leadership − at least not of the kind that might challenge the epistemological foundations of the institutional enterprise. This paper analyses the different frames (decolonisation, indigenisation or reconciliation) through which universities are seeking to transform their relationship with Indigenous peoples, on Indigenous lands. It considers the opportunities and limitations of these different approaches, including how their relative influence has changed over time. The paper draws on the author’s own experiences of working to transform both her institution and her discipline, describing strategies that settlers might use to both ease the burden of labour often placed on the shoulders of Indigenous scholars, while always working to make space for Indigenous people at the tables of institutional decision-makers.

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