Mii o’no gidibaajimowininaanan (These are our stories): Raising the voices and experiences of Indigenous students in higher education
Abstract
This Indigenous-framed research used counterstorytelling to identify and center student
success factors through shared stories provided by five Indigenous students in higher
education in Northern Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin who attended predominantly
white institutions (PWIs) and were within one-to-two years of degree attainment. All five
students identify as Ojibwe. The methodology was shaped by Indigenous ways of
knowing and being, which challenges higher education to create culturally sensitive
environments that elevate Indigenous voices and experiences. I collaborated with the
storytellers to publish their stories in their entirety on a website using their unique voices
instead of interpretations or summarizations. This makes research findings more
accessible to education professionals and tribal community members—something not
often considered in research within tribal communities. Raising voices and sharing the
stories of Indigenous students will not cause any ripples of change unless we take the
messages that we are being gifted through these stories and take action. Higher education
professionals must continue to do exactly what the storytellers called for: showing we
genuinely care; showing we honor and respect Indigenous students’ unique and complex
culture, history, influences, dreams, challenges, traumas, successes, and journeys; and
showing them that they matter—every part of them matters.
Subject
Education, Higher
Student affairs services
Indigneous students