The Listening, The Stillness, The Call, The Echo: re-Storying educational systems to address anti-Indigenous racism in education

Abstract

Lakehead University’s MEd portfolio can be a collection of creative, scholarly, and technical products created for professional use, allowing the development of resources that connect theory to practice in educational work. This portfolio includes an introduction/overview and four Chapters. The four chapters are the literature review, a resource that benefits education (a policy guideline), a relational response (Human Rights), and a reflection. This portfolio is organized through the Maang/Loon teaching as four interconnected movements: The Listening, The Stillness, The Call, and The Echo. These movements structure the portfolio chapters: literature review, policy/guideline reflection, relational response guide, and critical reflection. Together, they support a re-storying approach to anti-Indigenous racism grounded in Miigiwewin, Miingweziwin, Anishinaabewin, Odenang Inquiry, and relational accountability. In this portfolio, the Maang/Loon framework guides how the work is approached, while re-storying names the process of challenging anti-Indigenous racism in northern Ontario provincial schools. Within this organizational framework, the research question and subquestions ask how a re-storying framework can support educational systems while amplifying Indigenous student, family, and community voices. Through Listening, Stillness, Call, and Echo, this framework offers a cyclical and relational way to move from deep listening toward accountable future action. Chapter One - Literature Review - The Listening This chapter reflects the framework's Listening phase. Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are sought to uproot, seed, and nurture social justice in education. The literature review is rooted in Indigenous Storywork, wholistic theory, Miigiwewin, Miingweziwin, Anishinaabewin, Odenang Inquiry, anti-Indigenous racism, decolonizing education, Two-Eyed Seeing, and relational accountability. It gathers the knowledge, teachings, and scholarship needed to understand the roots of the problem and the possibilities for transformation towards social justice in education. The literature review synthesizes academic sources, identifies major themes, tensions, and contributions across the literature, including the limits of inclusion, the systemic nature of anti-Indigenous racism, the importance of Indigenous-led pedagogy, and the ethical responsibilities of re-storying education. The Listening reflects the Maang teaching that meaningful leadership begins with a deep examination beneath the surface. In education, this means reviewing and reflecting on policy statements to examine the underlying structures, assumptions, histories, and stories that shape school systems. Before change can occur, the “water” of the institution—its norms, biases, silences, and power relations—must be understood through relational listening and critical reflection. In this chapter focused on academia and Indigenous scholarship, listening also amplifies Indigenous voice and wisdom by amplifying and/or “listening” to Indigenous academic scholars by citing their important, authentic, and meaningful work. These scholars are trailblazers and knowledge keepers.

Chapter 2 - Re-Storying for Policy/Guidelines - The Stillness The second chapter is an applied practitioner inquiry focused on selected policy and guideline areas connected to anti-Indigenous racism and Indigenous student well-being. This task corresponds primarily to The Stillness. This chapter focuses on a particular set of public and approved documents to develop a focused reflection on omissions, misrepresentations, tensions, or areas requiring further development. This has led to specific recommendations for the formal creation of an Indigenous education policy and guidelines that address the following: Collaboration/Co-creation/Communication requirements, Commitments of Northern Ontario School Boards, Self-Identification, Land Acknowledgments, and Data & Data Sovereignty. The policy is a starting point, as directly related to student success and well-being. This concise analysis and set of considerations will inform future policy work in Indigenous education. The Stillness represents an intentional pause for reflection and critical inquiry. In this phase, institutions examine policies, practices, and assumptions through a relational lens to ensure that change is grounded in understanding rather than urgency alone. In this case, an academic publication, the “Stillness,” resists the colonial pressure to solve problems, rush toward solutions and action before real relationships, understandings, and true co-creation of a shared path can exist, with a two-eyed seeing philosophy. Chapter 3 - The Call - Re-Storying Relational Response Guide The third chapter is an applied framework product: a re-storying relational response guide for educators and/or administrators. Drawing on the literature review, policy reflection and recommendations, the guide will invite educators into the Maang/Loon re-storying framework and offer literature-informed principles, reflective prompts, and relational considerations for addressing anti-Indigenous racism through relational accountability. This chapter will share how one aspect of the policy (from chapter 2), specifically, uprooting Indigenous racism through the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC) honours Anishinabek rights to cultural absences without penalty. The chapter (guide) will support educators and administrators in supporting anti-Indigenous racism efforts by situating themselves in the work, listening, developing a better understanding, building relationships, and being active in re-storying. Honouring experiences, accreditation and properly recording approved cultural absences may produce a more accurate and respectful account of student participation, but the purpose of this chapter is not to measure improvement in attendance statistics. The Call represents a shift from reflection to action grounded in relational accountability. The Call, in this academic use, involves educator learning, policy reflection, Indigenous-led pedagogy, and practical tools that support systemic change. This chapter is intended to inform future educator learning and administrator reflection in the broader 2026–2027 funded project. Within the MEd portfolio, however, its purpose is conceptual and preparatory: to translate the literature and Maang/Loon framework into a practical but provisional resource for future community-led implementation and revision. Chapter 4 - Reflection - The Echo The Echo represents community accountability. In the Maang teaching, the voice is never projected in isolation. Maang pauses, listens, and waits for the echo before singing the next note. In educational systems, the Echo is the commitment to respect, responsibility, reciprocity, relationship, and reconciliation. The Echo becomes the framework's accountability mechanism. It reminds educational systems that the next action must be shaped by what returns from students, families, communities, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and the Land itself. In relationship to this portfolio, the ECHO will be my personal reflection as Mother, Daughter, Aunty, Artist and Educator as a member of Teme-Augama Anishinabek. The portfolio's four interrelated chapters meet the expectations of the MEd portfolio by combining scholarly, applied, technical, and reflective components. Aspects of this portfolio may inform meaningful future change through the broader 2026–2027 community-led project.