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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Indigenous Canada by University of Alberta

4.8
stars
21,725 ratings

About the Course

Indigenous Canada is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Faculty of Native Studies that explores the different histories and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples living in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores complex experiences Indigenous peoples face today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations. Topics for the 12 lessons include the fur trade and other exchange relationships, land claims and environmental impacts, legal systems and rights, political conflicts and alliances, Indigenous political activism, and contemporary Indigenous life, art and its expressions....

Top reviews

MD

Jul 2, 2021

This course was very interesting and very informative. Not only did it help correct stereotypes or prejudices, it showed a wide range of subjects pertaining to global and specific Indigenous cultures.

LJ

May 5, 2022

I really enjoyed this course. I liked that it was taught by indigenous peoples from their perspective. I feel much more confident in my knowledge regarding indigenous issues and traditions. Thank you!

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26 - 50 of 7,644 Reviews for Indigenous Canada

By Tara P

Jan 16, 2019

Amazing, transformative and so informative!

By Briar E

Nov 17, 2020

Thank you so much for this course. Also thanks to Dan Levy for suggesting it. The course and weekly chats helped educate me in Canada's true history, information that I should have received in school.

By Ravi s

Jan 31, 2019

good course to give an better understanding about Indigenous people's and their contribution in building Canadian society

By Dennis S

Oct 28, 2020

There are serious fact errors in this course. The American revolution did not begin in 1783 as stated in the course. There is no evidence for humans in the Americas before 16,000 BCE., the course states Indigenous peoples were in the Americas 40,000 years ago. These are serious errors and questions the credibility of the scholarship of the instructors and course material.

DES

By Ryan D

Feb 19, 2020

Extremely biased and left a bad taste in my mouth. Blaming everything on white heteropatriarchy.

By Marie D

Jul 3, 2021

This course was very interesting and very informative. Not only did it help correct stereotypes or prejudices, it showed a wide range of subjects pertaining to global and specific Indigenous cultures.

By Elizabeth F

Nov 3, 2020

Such important information for us all. This course was eye-opening and should really be taken by every Canadian. The course flows along nicely and is easy to navigate. I am better for having taken it.

By Erica P R

Nov 2, 2020

I'm so pleased to have been able to educated myself further on the true history of "Canada", what should have stayed Turtle Island. Being able to continue my learning and hopefully being a better ally

By Natalie G

Sep 17, 2018

Great course. Very informative and relevant. Videos were well-edited and featured accompanying course notes, which were very helpful for the quizzes. Would highly recommend to all Canadians.

By George G

Oct 10, 2020

For a university course I expected a much more balanced presentation than what is offered on this course. It is one-sided, leaning very much on the problems inflicted on the indigenous peoples with the arrival of the Europeans and continuing to some extent today. The lack of balance destroys the credibility of the course. A couple of examples include the ever mentioned idea that prior to arrival of Europeans indigenous people lived in “peace and harmony.” That of course is not true. War was a central to the way of life for First Nation’s culture. (None of this on the course.) Also indigenous peoples are presented as the keepers of the environment who practice sustainability of resources. Simply saying it does not make it true. The course presents no evidence of this. Indigenous people hunted bison and trapped beaver to the point of near extinction.

There are other examples where things just don’t seem to click. An excessive amount of time was spent defining the word Community. No time was spent defining two critical terms, “traditional lands” and “tribal lands.”

By Michael J

Dec 8, 2020

Thanks for teaching me a lot about indigenous history in Canada. I am inspired to learn more. I just finished Chelsea Vowel’s book, Indigenous Writes and I’m currently reading the summary of the RCAP.

By Lisa M

Nov 1, 2020

so grateful for the experience and the opportunity. I am richer for having participated. I am not interested in learning more about the indigenous people that lived/live in my area of the PNW (Oregon)

By Vance K

Feb 24, 2021

Excdellent course! I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn the material presented. Thanks you so much! All the work that was evident in putting this course together was worth the effort!

By LOL C

Nov 7, 2020

The course started out very interesting, but by Half way I became completely bored. Very boring representation. The last chapter on Art was very dissapointing. Being an artist myself I could not believe you talked about the artists for great length, but never showed any of their artwork. This made the chapter completely uninteresting.

By Evelyn G

May 28, 2021

Very well done! Thank you for allowing me to learn more about your history & culture. Being from Ireland and relatively new to Canada I wanted to know more about the beginnings of Canada as a country.

By Michelle V

Mar 1, 2019

Great content and well done in being inclusive of the people across the region of Canada. I enjoyed learning and exploring the art pieces.

By Shajini J

Feb 1, 2019

Very important and comprehensive course!

By Kathryn T

Jul 28, 2020

It was privilege to be able to take this course. I learned a great deal and believe my understanding of Indigenous people is forever changed for the better. Thank you to all who made the course possible.

My two suggestions for an improved experience would be to first, use more visual aids, soundscapes and video clips to enhance and replace the talking head presentations and second, to review your quiz questions to ensure they are clear and there is only one correct answer.

By Hortense B

Oct 7, 2020

Merci! There is so much to learn, and three months pass quickly! I really liked this course, loved the beautiful fusain (?) portraits (the eyes only are so telling...), getting to know the history of Turtle Island before the creation of Canada was very precious, especially around understanding the Treaties (I would believe most Canadians settlers do not know what is it about and even less Canadian settlers immigrants like myself), and the Fur Trade (I probably learned the most Modules 1-4).

I did my master's research paper on Indigenous Women’s Resilience, Resistance and Cultural Resurgence through Activism and Art (Turtle Island), I had loved Christi Belcourt's Walking With Our Sisters' initiative, they are with us and we are with them. This helps me understand what I couldn't two years ago, and I hope that in two years my comprehension will grow twofold or more.

I did find that some of the modules at the end (e.g. Indigenous women and even how certain policies still affect them disproportionately) could have been more through, but considering the course is free and that you are sharing on Indegeneity, the content is amazing! I do want to follow a course on Indigenous art, there is so much so much! From signing, spoken poetry, beading, painting, rap, sculpture, weaving, media such a films, documentaries, etc. and all the things I am forgetting about.

Do I recommend this course to any fellow settler Canadian out there? Yes I do. These things should be mandatory anyway, but can you force people to learn, I don't know. I just think it would be nice if settler people would respecting Indigenous peoples (definition needs clarification) and want to learn from them.

To close, I just want to say thank you to those involved in the creation of the course, it is much appreciated. I needed it.

Merci

By Sean G

Jan 16, 2019

GREAT INSIGHT TO THE HISTORY OF CANADA

By Ansel W

Jul 10, 2020

Some of the quiz questions were quite vague, with sometimes 2 answers that were seemingly correct based on the course material.

By Graeme V

Jul 24, 2020

I found some of the questions in the tests to be worded poorly

By Anna E M

Jul 25, 2020

Some quiz questions were not so clear

By John C

May 4, 2020

I started this course with an expectation that I would acquire some understanding of how First Nations people and "settlers" in Canada arrived at our current state. I think the course did an admiral job of that. The course represented clearly the mistakes made, the misunderstandings, the motivations, and the sad history that played out. What I still don't have is an understanding of where we are going next. We can't dwell on the past to the exclusion of planning for our mutual future. I also feel a bit lost on who the "players" are now, who will lead us forward?

By Kathryne C

Aug 4, 2020

The quiz questions are badly worded.