Structural racism in academia: How colonial legacies shape Indigenous scholars’ exclusion at Canadian universities
Original framing: “Indigenous scholars allege racism, poor treatment at University of Ottawa” — bing news
The allegations reflect the ongoing *cultural genocide* of Indigenous scholars, whose knowledge systems have been systematically excluded from Canadian universities since the *Indian Act* (1876) and the *White Paper* (1969). The University of Ottawa’s Indigenous Institute, while well-intentioned, operates within a colonial framework that treats Indigenous epistemologies as add-ons rather than foundational. This mirrors the *TRC’s* (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) findings that universities remain sites of cultural erasure, where Indigenous faculty face higher workloads, lower pay, and tokenistic inclusion in leadership.
The University of Ottawa’s crisis is not an isolated incident but a symptom of how settler-colonial universities reproduce racial capitalism through precarious labor, curricular erasure, and performative diversity.
Historical patterns, from the *Indian Act* to the *TRC’s* unfulfilled calls, show that without structural decolonization—such as Indigenous governance, reparative funding, and land restitution—these institutions will continue to exploit Indigenous knowledge while claiming neutrality. Cross-cultural models, like Māori universities or Brazil’s *Yanomami* STEM programs, prove that systemic change requires treating Indigenous epistemologies as foundational, not peripheral. The *trickster* lens exposes the absurdity of universities acknowledging ‘failures’ while maintaining the same extractive structures, demanding instead that Indigenous scholars lead the dismantling of these systems through legal, artistic, and economic resistance.