Unlearning: A messy and complex journey with Canadian Foreign Policy

Abstract

Adopting a narrative approach, I describe how doing research on the Highway of Tears, which exposed me to Indigenous method and theory, required of me an unlearning of core assumptions about who I was as a scholar. In addition, the ongoing process of unlearning has only reinforced my view that we must be mindful about the ways in which the field of Canadian Foreign Policy (CFP) has the potential to construct images of Canada that marginalize francophone, feminist, and Indigenous voices and perspectives. We need to embrace the complexity of our country and tell stories that problematize dominant, and often simplistic, narratives.