MASTERCLASS: Reclaiming Knowledge: Indigenous Disability, Language, Education, and the Politics of Research

Whose knowledge is recognized? Who gets to shape research, education, policy, and practice? And what becomes possible when Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous experiences of disability are centred?

Join us for a three-hour interactive masterclass bringing together perspectives from Indigenous disability research, education, policy, Deaf Indigenous experiences, and Indigenous sign language revitalization in Australia and Canada.

Moving beyond a traditional lecture, the session will combine short presentations, critical reflection, small-group discussion, and a sharing circle. Together, we will explore:
How colonial systems shape understandings of disability, language, learning, and evidence
Indigenous approaches to research, knowledge, and education
Indigenous disability and Deaf Indigenous perspectives
Indigenous sign languages and visual-spatial ways of knowing
The relationship between research, policy, and colonial systems
How Indigenous methodologies can expand what we recognize as legitimate knowledge

The masterclass will introduce approaches including Indigenous Disability Standpoint Theory, Two-Eyed Seeing, Métissage, Wìsakedjàk, and Indigenous oral and community-based knowledge.

This is a space for learning, dialogue, reflection, and relationship-building. You do not need to be an expert. Come with curiosity, questions, and a willingness to think differently about knowledge and whose voices are heard.