New initiative from Saagajiwe brings Indigenous knowledge to the forefront

Since its inception in 2017, Saagajiwe (opens in new window)  at The Creative School has served as a transdisciplinary Indigenous centre for research and creation at the frontier of Indigenous renaissance. Carrying on with this commitment the team behind Saagajiwe was eager to unveil its newest and boldest initiative to date: Saagajiwe Indigenous Knowledges Open Source Encyclopedia - SIKOSE, a comprehensive, open-source encyclopedia centred around Indigenous culture, history and language.

Launched by Saagajiwe at The Creative School in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's (TRC) "Calls to Action", SIKOSE aims to facilitate the dissemination of Indigenous thought and knowledge. The open source encyclopedia offers a virtual learning environment with free access to audio, visual, textual, graphic, performance, and experiential learning resources focusing on Indigenous knowledge. 

As Dr. Thohahoken Michael Doxtater, Director of Saagajiwe points out, the initiative will push the boundaries of publicly available resources centered on Indigeneity. 

"SIKOSE operationalizes the challenges made in the TRC's Call To Action for higher learning institutions like TMU to work with Indigenous peoples to recover culture, heritage, and languages," states Doxtater. "The Creative School is on the frontier of taking action through SIKOSE, and Saagajiwe's focus on Indigenous young people will encourage teaching and learning that they are part of a global Indigenous renaissance.”

Preserving and promoting Indigenous knowledge through technology

By curating open-source learning resources focusing on Indigenous knowledge, SIKOSE provides a wealth of information that can be accessed and used by Indigenous communities, scholars, and students. This preservation and promotion of Indigenous knowledge helps to strengthen the community's connection to its cultural heritage and contributes to the revitalization of Indigenous languages.

As Saagajiwe's research associate of media strategy, Joginder Singh, explains, the resource is also becoming an active network of Indigenous Studies stakeholders. 

"SIKOSE is starting to become a one-stop platform for collating and disseminating open-source Indigenous Knowledge systems. Presenting this knowledge in a free and accessible manner, SIKOSE directly responds to The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's challenge to assist with the recovery of Indigenous culture, heritage, and language,” he said. “It also builds an active network of Indigenous Studies stakeholders while leading to a regeneration of the community."

A wealth of educational benefits

In addition to its value to the Indigenous community, SIKOSE also provides a significant educational benefit as the virtual learning environment created by SIKOSE allows for free, accessible, and content-led resources to be used by all levels of education across Canada. By working alongside Indigenous experts and community educators, SIKOSE is able to provide high-quality resources that center Indigenous knowledge and inter-community growth and directly responds to the TRC's call to action.

Saagajiwe program coordinator and current PhD student Justine Woods says that an important part of Saagajiwe's new era is its role as a physical and digital hub that fosters tangible outputs of Indigenous creative brilliance that directly responds to the TRC's 94 calls to action.

"Through community-oriented action, Saagajiwe actively generates and disseminates knowledge focusing on creative-research practice that mobilizes Indigenous resurgence,” she said. “Our work also brings Indigenous creative practitioners from within TMU and beyond the university into kinship with one another through a relational approach to sharing and exchanging knowledge through creative methods."

By providing Canadians with unlimited access to diverse formats of learning resources, SIKOSE has the potential to significantly impact the education landscape and contribute to the recovery of Indigenous culture, heritage, and language in Canada.

The open-source encyclopedia has already been shared with many universities and colleges, school boards, Indigenous institutes in Canada and Tribal Colleges in the U.S. to expand Indigenous knowledge. In addition to SIKOSE, they've also started to work on hosting Festival Saagajiwe, a festival of Indigenous research-creation output, alongside other various initiatives.

"The Global Indigenous Summit is also being lined up for 2024," remarked Singh. "The summit shall host focus groups, forums, and demonstrations that explore indigenous peoples' perspectives on global affairs and food security, practices about water supply, diet, nutrition, and wellness. It shall also demonstrate indigenous peoples' use of model architecture, intermediate technologies, and sustainable life systems. The research generated out of these shall be recorded and disseminated through SIKOSE."

Interested in learning more about SIKOSE? Explore the open-source encyclopedia (opens in new window)  and everything else that Saagajiwe (opens in new window)  has to offer.

The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University

The Creative School is a dynamic faculty that is making a difference in new, unexplored ways. Made up of Canada’s top professional schools and transdisciplinary hubs in media, communication, design and cultural industries, The Creative School offers students an unparalleled global experience in the heart of downtown Toronto.