13 Arts courses you can take to learn about Indigenous history and culture

Indigenous Literature: NDN Time: Past and Presents Erased, Futures Foreclosed

ENGL_V 373 | Mon/Wed/Fri 3:00–4:00 PM

Who gets to imagine the future, and who gets written out of it? This course explores Indigenous futurisms and speculative fiction, examining how Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities envision radical alternatives to mainstream narratives of what's to come. You'll engage with Indigenous notions of time, kinship, and continuity as tools for imagining genuinely shared futures.

Taught by Dr. Dallas Hunt

Place, Power, Poetics and Narrative Discourse

ENGL_V 376A | Mon/Wed/Fri 12:00–1:00 PM

What does it mean to read literature here, on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm land? This course pairs works by Musqueam and local Indigenous authors with texts from elsewhere, asking how place, power, and the act of reading are always connected. You'll develop new frameworks for literary analysis rooted in Indigenous, diasporic, and settler ways of knowing.

Taught by Miranda Burgess

Francophone Indigenous Literatures in Dialogue

RMST_V 326 | Tue/Thu 2:00–3:30 PM

What happens when Indigenous Peoples are separated from their lands by resource extraction? This course explores the work of Indigenous writers, filmmakers, and artists in Quebec and BC, examining life-writing, testimony, autofiction, and dystopian fiction as tools for understanding relationships to land, culture, and kin.

Taught by Isabella Huberman

Indigenous Writing

CRWR_V 420X | Fri 10:00 AM–12:00 PM

Deepen your creative and critical voice through an advanced study of contemporary Indigenous writing across genres. You'll explore how Indigenous writers across North America engage with coloniality, race, history, and identity, producing your own critical and creative work in response.

Restricted to Creative Writing majors

Taught by Dr. Billy-Ray Belcourt

Arctic Art and Activism

CENS_V 203, Sect. 201 | Tue/Thu 9:30–11:00 AM

Indigenous peoples across the Arctic are facing unprecedented environmental and economic pressures from outside their communities. This course explores neocolonialism in circumpolar regions, examining how Indigenous communities have fought to retain sovereignty over their lands and ways of life through collective action, art, and cultural revitalization.

Taught by Dr. Tim Frandy

Introduction to Creative Writing with an Indigenous Focus

CRWR_V 220 | Wed 12:00–2:00 PM

Find your creative voice through an Indigenous lens. This course introduces you to creative writing across three genres, from fiction and poetry to creative nonfiction, radio drama, and stage play, with Indigenous perspectives and storytelling at the centre.

Taught by Dr. Billy-Ray Belcourt

Introduction to Indigenous Studies

ENGL_V 231 | Mon/Wed/Fri 3:00–4:00 PM

How long have Indigenous Peoples been making literature, and is literature only found in books? This course expands what it means to read and write, introducing you to Indigenous authors from North America and the Pacific through poetry, fiction, essays, oral storytelling, performance, film, and land-based story.

Taught by Dr. Alexa Manuel

Gender, Race and Indigeneity in Canada

GRSJ_V 301 | Tue/Thu 9:30–11:00 AM

What do documented histories leave out, and what do narrated lives reveal? This course examines gender and Indigeneity through the recorded histories and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples in Canada, exploring how race, gender, and colonial structures have shaped and continue to shape Indigenous life.

Recommended for students who have completed GRSJ_V 101 and GRSJ_V 102, or have third-year standing.

Reading the Bible on Indigenous Lands

AMNE_V 384 | Mon/Wed/Fri 10:00–11:00 AM

How were biblical texts used to justify European settler colonialism in North America? This course examines the reception and appropriation of the Bible on Turtle Island, with a focus on British Columbia, and traces the impact of Christianity on Indigenous communities through the Indian Act and Residential School system.

Taught by Dr. Kurtis Peters

Topics in Place, Power, Poetics, and Narrative: Storying Indigenous Vancouver

ENGL_V 376B | Tue/Thu 11:00 AM–12:30 PM

What does it mean to study literature on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm land? This course foregrounds Musqueam teachings, stories, and relations alongside works by other Indigenous authors, exploring how literature and storytelling articulate identity, resurgence, and self-determination. You'll come away with a reshaped sense of what reading can be when approached through Indigenous ways of knowing.

Taught by Dr. Dallas Hunt

Indigenous Latin America

LAST_V 303 | Tue/Thu 2:00–3:30 PM

From the conquest to the present, this course surveys Indigenous cultures across Latin America, from the United States to Tierra del Fuego. You'll explore a rich range of sources including chronicles, visual art, legal documents, novels, and oral history, drawing connections with the experience of Indigenous nations in Canada and critically examining concepts like decolonization and subalternity.

Sámi Histories and Cultures

NORD_V 340 | Mon/Wed, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM

Explore the diverse histories and cultures of Sámi people—the Indigenous Peoples of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola peninsula of Russia. From reindeer to religion, from folklore to Frozen II, this course examines Sámi traditional culture, the impacts of settler colonialism upon it, and the ways revitalization and activism work as agents of decolonization today.

Taught by Dr. Tim Frandy

Indigenous Activism

NORD_V 341 | Tue/Thu, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM

Indigenous communities in the circumpolar north are reshaping the political landscape through art, performance, and activism. This course examines contemporary social and political conflicts across the Arctic region, exploring how First Peoples have mobilized creative and activist practices as powerful tools for resistance and decolonization.

Taught by Dr. Tim Frandy