The instructors provided an excellent overview of indigneous issues past and present. As a Canadian who has lived outside of Canada for the past 27 years I very much appreciated the inclusion of contemporary issues about which I have not heard from beyond the border. The course helped me better understand my own experiences in NWT in the early 1970's when I traveled with Northwest Lands and Forest Service into the range of the Beverly caribou herd, to assist with ecological studies of the impact of forest fires. This course makes me reconsider the history of Canada and gives me a far greater awareness of contemporary concerns for both indigenous and non-indigenous people.

This course was extremely informative. The course notes were comprehensive and the video lectures were delivered with excellent tonality and diction making them easy to comprehend, follow and absorb.

The course material was relevant and although extremely emotionally disturbing in parts (Killing the Indian in the Child, Red Power, Sovereign Lands...to name a few of the the more compelling topics), it served to inform and raise my awareness exponentially.

Having descended from the Taino(Arawak - Jamaica W.I.) my history is all but lost, so to be able to share the experience of this country's Indigenous population, gave me some context and the will to research and explore my own.

I admit to being rather naïve when it comes to Indigenous Canada. This course is a real eye opener. My heart is heavy as I learn how western civilization imposed its values, morals and worldviews on Indigenous peoples.

As a correctional nurse working in a maximum security detention centre, I learned how much our punitive justice system is juxtaposed with the once practiced restorative justice system of First Nations Peoples.

I have also learned how a society that values not just humans but all life as equals, has much to teach us in are present day " throw away society"

I would recommend this course to any Canadian who wishes to have a better understanding of Indigenous Canada.

I found this course to be full of valuable knowledge that I believe the general population should know. With a deeper understanding I am better able to advocate and support the Indigenous population that I work with. I am very thankful that this course was offered for free, as I personally feel that the public school system did a terrible job at educating us on the real historical events that have impacted this beautiful and resilient community. I will be sure to share this course and the information I have learned with others to help spread awareness of how the history of our country has impacted the Indigenous population so severely that its effects are still present today.

Thank you for providing access to this course. I took this course to become more informed about the atrocities inflicted on indigenous peoples in colonization and the facts that were never taught in school. As a non indigenous person, born and raised in the lower mainland of B.C., I am grateful to learn more about indigenous history, culture and governace through this course. We all need to be reminded (or learn), we are stewards of the land and need to care and practice reciprocity and work together to do so. Additionally, I enjoyed the highlight of multiple artists including contemporary indigenous art. Teri Greeves work is fabulous! Thanks again for the excellent content!

I always knew that the public school curriculum that was meant to teach me about this country’s history was suspiciously missing content. It framed things through a lens which left the truth of Indigenous experience out. This course gave a good overview of times and the topics that had such significant impact, and felt like a much more honest telling of history. I am grateful that the University of Alberta made this material available to me and so many others. Its such a generous and valuable contribution to raising consciousness about the past and present and hopefully helps us all toward a future where mechanisms and belief systems of colonialism are no longer status quo.

Over the past year or so, as I listened to the news and its panel discussions, I wanted to find a course/resource that would help me understand the history and culture/philosophy etc. of the Indigenous Peoples. I definitely do not recall being taught any of this content in school (and it should be in the curriculum). Thank You to the University of Alberta Native Studies and Coursera for offering this course - I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to fill in some educational gaps! I have one suggestion - as an adult learner (now 70) I, and I think others, would appreciate having the correct answer given along with telling us to review the specific section. Thanks again.

While I have always been sympathetic to the plight of our First Nation people I lacked a full knowledge and understanding of their incredible diversity, fundamental and foundational world views and tremendous resilience in the face of a genocide , which I am glad to say this course has given me. More than merely an attempt to correct the existing narrative prevalent in mainstream Canadian society, it has introduced me to our true founding nation as a strong and vibrant voice fighting still on behalf of the beauty and spirit of this wonderful land. It has given me something to truly to be proud of. Thank you so much for starting me on a wonderful journey of discovery.

Before learning about this course I had read "21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act" and I was appalled and ashamed. I started reading 'Braiding Sweetgrass" while taking this course and it was helpful to have done both simultaneously. We settlers have so much work to do to right the wrongs that continue to perpetuate our existence here on Turtle Island. We settlers have so much to learn from Indigenous culture that could make our every day life more meaningful. I am amazed by how gently the course is delivered given all that has been endured to this day by Aboriginal people. Thank you for this opportunity - it's the most important learning I've experienced.

I recommend every Canadian to take this course. I have to admit that I was very ignorant of Indigenous Canadian history, and fell into the category of individuals believing in Indigenous stereotypes! Looking back at my early education, I can say that there was no reference in any form to the history mentioned in these modules! So sadly lacking! Every Canadian adolescent should be required to have a basic knowledge acquired through our educational institutions! Thank you for enlightening my mind! I now have a deeper understanding of the wrongs that aboriginal people endure, and how they are today striving to correct it. I now see their world in a very different light.

This course opened my eyes to all the work I still need to do to understand the past and present issues faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada. I have never been so drawn in by an online course. I have really taken this course to heart and appreciate the time, expertise and emotional energy put into this course by its creators. A lot of these things I've heard about or knew loosely, but this course really helped me un-learn the misconceptions I took away from being educated as a child within the mainstream settler understanding of Canadian history. I will be taking these lessons with me into the future and will try to steer as many people as I can towards this course.

This course was absolutely amazing and eye opening. I am an immigrant and therefore the only narrative that is readily available for me is the one of settlers. A lot of undercurrents and stereotypes and reservations are not always obvious to me, as well as the reasons behind things being the way they are, so this was a great compilation of resources for me to start on my own journey of understanding the overwhelming impact of colonialism on my life and lives of others. I have already recommended this course to others and will continue doing so to those who look for starting this process. My heartfelt thanks goes to everyone who made this important course what it is.

I loved this course!!! I have learned so much. I am thankful to The University of Alberta for preserving this history and culture. It is all of our story whether indigenous or colonial peoples. There are lessons to be learned from the past. Let's honor those memories by not making similar choices in the future. I hope that more will take the time to learn about cultures that differ from their own. Maybe then we will have a better understanding of the strength that comes from those differences. I also want to say thank you to Dan Levy for promoting this course as I would have never known about this offering. Good Luck and continued enrollment. -Katherine M Persinger

EXCELLENT COURSE. An opportunity for interaction with the professors or teaching assistants would have enriched the course. This course should be heavily promoted so more settler Canadians like myself and new immigrants can embark on a voyage of 1) understanding the significant role Indigenous Canadians played in the history of our country and 2) providing active support by non-indigenous to right the many wrongs that the Crown and successive Canadian governments perpetrated against Canada's Indigenous people. This would be great as a Multi-part course so more depth could be added to this already GREAT COURSE. Thanks to all who have made this course available.

Thank you Tracy Bear and Paul Gareau for creating this course. By combining lecture, storytelling, art, and personal experience you have raised my consciousness. I just moved here from the U.S. and was sad to see the same white male patriarchal oppression here in Canada. I am encouraged by the current social activism, the start of reparation and regaining of native land and aboriginal rights. I am recommending this course to all my friends. I just wish I had found the IG discussion group while I was in the course modules, it would have made a wonderful experience even better,

I am grateful for this knowledge and will always be in support.

Thank you,

Phranc Gottlieb

I have taken a few Indigenous courses over the last five years and this one has been by far the best! It spoke about four different groups across the country of their worldviews, MMIW, residential schools, languages, governence and political issues, spiritual, land and treaty history.

I would have liked to see more art culture included in Module 12. Actually showing some of th 1818 vamps made, mukluks, head dress, parkas and current artists work.

Thank you to the fabulous moderators, the scholars and all persons who were involved putting this learning course together for others to have this opportunity to learn.

Gratefuly appreciated this learning nopportunity!!

I cannot express how much I enjoyed and learned from this course. I had not done an online course for many years and I found it very easy to follow and that the format was very user friendly. I liked the module set up and found it motivated me to complete sessions and move forward, I actually finsihed ahead of the schedule I had set for myself.

The course content and presenters were such a pleasure to listen to, I found it very engaging from start to finish. I feel that I learned so much and will have a new lens as I move forward with my work with Indigenous students and their families. Many thanks for offering this course at such a relevant time in our counrty.

I was very grateful to take this course. I feel that it is true clear history and geography that we were never taught in our public schools. I feel betrayed by our Canadian government and educational system for not having this extremely important part of our history and heritage included in my education. I now feel that I have a much clearer view into the Indigenous Peoples way of caring for their families, communities, their land and traditions that I had very limited knowledge of before. I took this course solely to become more informed about Indigenous Peoples and their ways of thinking and living. I would recommend this course to anyone and everyone.

I really appreciated the relaxed format of being able to work independently and at my own rate. The three lecturers all presented the material in an interesting and sincere way. I learned so much from the artwork of Leah Dorion and i felt this was an excellent way to highlight the important messages, to give me something to return to and to help me remember them by. I understand that this is an introductory course and it has done its job well by planting the roots and establishing a foundation for me to continue to build my knowledge from. The personal stories shared by guest speakers were relevant and very heartfelt. I would highly recommend this course.

TAKE THIS COURSE!!! This is a must for everyone living in Canada, the United States and any country with indigenous peoples; especially if your ancestry makes you part of the settlers. I hope there will be a follow-up course, or many follow-up courses (I feel each class could easily be made into a 12 class courses!!) because I feel this is really just scratching the surface, a very good scratching, it's just there is so much to learn. We have so much listening to do. We have to encourage indigenous peoples to be way more present in politics; they are the ones who can show us how to be one with our surroundings. I am very grateful for this course. Thank you!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this, my first, online course. I am profoundly changed because of it! This is information that should have been taught at various grade levels to all Canadian children enrolled in the public school system. As someone who took Canadian Studies at the high school level, I was saddened to realize and admit that I didn't know more!! Knowledge is power!! Once I learned that we were not given the full story of the Indigenous history and experience, I knew it was up to me to search it out for myself!! I enjoyed the lectures, the artwork and the video clips. Grateful for the experience! I will recommend it to everyone!! Thank you! JB

Great learning about part of the history of this land, to learn about the traditions, lifestyles, societies, arts, etc of some indigenous cultures; the different battles that they have faced through colonization; the current injustices; the movements; and the achievements on getting some autonomy, recognition and respect back. Though the fight is not over. But having this exposure to the general population is an important step so they can recognize, understand and empathize with what the indigenous cultures have been through. A most sincere thank you for the research, work, art, stories, experience sharing, and effort that was put to make this amazing course.

I feel that the course was very informative and well put together. As a person who has First Nations people in my family i have quite abit of information but the course gave me actual time lines of events and dates that were relevant to what i was told. It certainly made me uncomfortable at times with the way our government dealt with and still does deal with Indigenous issues.

It didnt "pull any punches" when talking about the difference in the way First Nations and Settlers understood or chose to understand the details of treaties and land claims that still apply today

I think it is an excellent course and am glad to have been able to take part in it.

I am emeritus faculty in Portuguese language and Luso-Brazilian studies. I have some non-specialist background in US Native American studies from high school and my undergraduate course. As an American with some understanding of Native studies, I truly enjoyed this course. It was a broad multi-disciplinary introduction to Indigenous Canada, as promised. For an American like me, too, it was well situated within Canadian studies. That is, I was simultaneously learning about our indigenous neighbors to the north and about the Canadian national context. Native Studies at the University of Alberta is to be commended. I look forward to pursuing this topic further.

This was an amazing course and the journey for myself was enjoyable and thought provoking. I am truly inspired to continue on the native studies earning path. I developed a new perspective to some old knowledge, opinions and experience I have had, both positive and negative. All contributors to the body of work that became this course should have such pride. It should be considered a starting point for our social studies curriculum design in Canada. I especially loved listening to Leah Dorion discuss her art and process of creating the art along side the course content with the faculty members. Great interviews, great flow, just loved this course. Thank you!