Indigenous Resurgence: What It Means, and What It Asks of Us
- Kim Trottier
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
Indigenous resurgence is not a reaction to colonialism. It is not defined by what it pushes against. It is defined by what it reclaims, rebuilds, and refuses to surrender: land, language, ceremony, governance, identity, and life.
That distinction is important. Too often, Indigenous peoples and their movements are framed only in relation to colonial harm, as if resurgence is simply the aftermath of trauma rather than a living, self-determined assertion of who Indigenous peoples have always been and continue to be.
This post centres Indigenous voices, frameworks, and futures. It explores what Indigenous resurgence means, what it looks like in practice, and how settlers and allies can support it, without co-opting it. At Culturally Committed, this work is foundational to everything we do. Understanding resurgence is not optional for organizations committed to genuine reconciliation and cultural safety.
What Is Indigenous Resurgence?
📌 Definition: Indigenous Resurgence Indigenous resurgence is the active, self-determined reclaiming of Indigenous identity, land, language, knowledge systems, governance, and cultural practices. It is not state-sanctioned and does not require the permission or recognition of colonial institutions. Resurgence is driven by Indigenous peoples themselves, on their own terms, rooted in their own traditions and futures. |
Scholar and Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has been one of the most influential voices in articulating what resurgence means and requires. Her work emphasizes that resurgence is not about seeking inclusion within colonial structures, it is about rebuilding and re-energizing Indigenous worlds from within, grounded in Indigenous knowledge, relationships, and land.
This framing is important because it draws a clear line between resurgence and reconciliation. Reconciliation, as it has been implemented through state processes in Canada, is often defined by colonial governments and institutions, determining the pace, the terms, and the outcomes. Resurgence, by contrast, is self-determined. It does not wait for a government process. It is already happening, in language nests, in land reclamations, in ceremony, in art, in governance, and in the everyday acts of Indigenous peoples choosing to live fully as themselves.
If this is new territory for you, Teachings Tuesday, our weekly newsletter from founder Kim Trottier, is a good place to keep learning. |
The Pillars of Indigenous Resurgence
Indigenous resurgence is not a single movement, it is many, diverse, community-specific, and rooted in the particular nations, territories, and traditions from which it emerges. That said, several interconnected pillars appear consistently across Indigenous resurgence frameworks:
Land and Territory: Resurgence begins with land. For Indigenous peoples, land is not a resource or a commodity, it is a living relationship, a source of identity, law, and responsibility. Land back movements, assertions of sovereignty, and the protection of sacred sites are all expressions of this foundational pillar.
Language Revitalization: Language carries culture, worldview, ceremony, and relationship in ways that translation cannot fully capture. When a language is lost, profound knowledge is lost with it. Language revitalization, through immersion schools, language nests, elder-youth programs, and digital archiving, is one of the most urgent and powerful acts of resurgence.
Cultural Ceremonies and Practices: The suppression of ceremony was central to the colonial project in Canada, made explicit through the potlatch ban and the residential school system. The revival and continuation of ceremony, on Indigenous terms, in Indigenous spaces, is both an act of resistance and an act of healing.
Indigenous Governance and Self-Determination: Indigenous peoples have their own systems of law, governance, and decision-making that predate and exist independently of colonial governments. Resurgence asserts and rebuilds these systems, whether through formal nation-to-nation negotiations or community-level practices of consensus and relational accountability.
Education and Youth Leadership: Young Indigenous people are at the centre of resurgence. Education rooted in Indigenous knowledge, language, and land, rather than assimilationist curriculum, equips the next generation to carry their cultures forward on their own terms.
Indigenous Resurgence in Canada: Context and Examples
Canada's colonial history, including the Indian Act, residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and ongoing dispossession of land and resources, created the conditions that make resurgence both necessary and urgent. But resurgence is not simply a response to this history. It is evidence that Indigenous peoples, cultures, and knowledge systems have survived, adapted, and persisted.
Land Back
The Land Back movement asserts that Indigenous sovereignty over land was never ceded and cannot be extinguished by colonial legislation. It calls for the return of decision-making power over territories to Indigenous nations, not simply symbolic recognition, but substantive political and legal change. Land Back is not a monolithic demand but a framework for rethinking the relationship between Indigenous nations and the Canadian state.
Language Revitalization
Across Canada, Indigenous communities are investing in language revitalization with urgency and creativity. Language nests, immersion programs for young children, have proven effective in passing languages to new generations. University and community college programs now offer instruction in Cree, Anishinaabemowin, Michif, and dozens of other languages. Digital tools, apps, and online archives are extending access beyond geographic boundaries.
Community-Led Health and Wellness
Indigenous-led health initiatives, grounded in traditional medicine, land-based healing, and cultural continuity, are reclaiming what wellness means outside of Western biomedical frameworks. These initiatives don't just deliver services, they rebuild the cultural and relational conditions in which Indigenous peoples can thrive.
Indigenous Land Defenders and Sovereignty Advocates
From Wet'suwet'en land defenders to the ongoing work of grassroots water protectors, Indigenous peoples are asserting their responsibility to protect their territories against extractive industries and state-sanctioned development. These movements are expressions of Indigenous law and governance in action, not protests, but the exercise of sovereign responsibility.
How Resurgence Connects to Cultural Safety
Cultural safety and Indigenous resurgence are deeply connected. Cultural safety in institutions, healthcare settings, schools, workplaces, creates the conditions in which Indigenous peoples can show up fully, without being asked to hide, assimilate, or perform for a non-Indigenous audience.
When an Indigenous employee feels culturally safe at work, they are more able to bring their full identity, knowledge, and perspective to their role. When an Indigenous student feels culturally safe in school, they are more able to engage with their own learning and community. Cultural safety does not create resurgence, resurgence is Indigenous-led and self-determined, but it can remove some of the institutional barriers that make resurgence harder.
According to Culturally Committed, organizations that are genuinely committed to cultural safety ask themselves: are we creating space for Indigenous peoples to be fully themselves here? That question is inseparable from resurgence. For a foundation in what cultural safety means, read: What Is Cultural Safety? Understanding What It Means to Feel Seen.
How Settlers and Allies Can Support Indigenous Resurgence
Supporting Indigenous resurgence does not mean leading it, speaking for it, or reframing it through a settler lens. It means making space, removing barriers, and doing your own work. Here is what that can look like in practice:
Learn whose land you are on, and do more than acknowledge it. Territorial acknowledgements that are disconnected from action are performative. Learn the history of the territory, support land back initiatives, and let that knowledge shape your decisions.
Support Indigenous-led organizations and economies. Direct your funding, your business, and your amplification toward Indigenous-owned and Indigenous-led organizations, not intermediaries who claim to speak on their behalf.
Advocate for policy change. Use your access and privilege to push for legislation, institutional policies, and funding structures that return decision-making power to Indigenous nations.
Take cultural safety training, and keep going. Training is a starting point, not a destination. Culturally Committed offers workshops and consulting designed to move organizations from awareness into action.
Follow, listen to, and amplify Indigenous voices. Centre Indigenous scholarship, art, journalism, and leadership in your own learning and in the spaces you influence. Do not substitute your interpretation for Indigenous people's own words.
What Resurgence Is NOT
Because resurgence is gaining visibility in mainstream spaces, it is also at risk of being misunderstood, flattened, or co-opted. It is important to be clear about what resurgence is not:
Not a monolithic movement. Indigenous resurgence is plural, diverse, and community-specific. What resurgence looks like for a Haudenosaunee community in Ontario is different from what it looks like for a Métis community in Manitoba or a Coast Salish nation in British Columbia. Resurgence is not a single ideology, it is rooted in the particular nations and territories from which it emerges.
Not for settlers or non-Indigenous people to lead or co-opt. Allies have a role, but that role is support, not leadership. When non-Indigenous organizations rebrand their DEI initiatives as "resurgence work," they are co-opting a term that belongs to Indigenous peoples and their self-determined movements.
Not synonymous with reconciliation. Reconciliation, as currently framed in Canadian policy, operates within colonial structures and on colonial timelines. Resurgence does not wait for state recognition. It asserts Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination whether or not a government process acknowledges it.
Not only about the past. Resurgence is forward-looking. It is about the futures that Indigenous peoples are actively shaping, grounded in their own knowledge, relationships, and visions for what their communities can be
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Indigenous resurgence and reconciliation?
Reconciliation, as implemented through Canadian state processes, operates within existing colonial structures and is largely defined by government institutions and timelines. Indigenous resurgence is self-determined, it does not require the permission or recognition of the state. Resurgence asserts Indigenous sovereignty, knowledge, and governance on Indigenous terms, while reconciliation often asks Indigenous peoples to work within frameworks that were not designed by or for them
What does Indigenous resurgence look like in practice
Indigenous resurgence looks like language nests teaching children their ancestral languages. It looks like land defenders asserting sovereignty over unceded territories. It looks like community-led health programs rooted in traditional medicine. It looks like Indigenous artists, writers, and scholars reclaiming their stories on their own terms. It is diverse, community-specific, and happening across Canada every day.
How can non-Indigenous people support Indigenous resurgence
Non-Indigenous people can support resurgence by learning the history of the land they occupy, directing funding and business to Indigenous-led organizations, advocating for policy change that returns decision-making power to Indigenous nations, taking cultural safety training, and amplifying Indigenous voices rather than speaking over them. Support means removing barriers and making space, not leading the work.
What is language revitalization, and why is it important?
Language revitalization is the active effort to preserve, restore, and grow the use of Indigenous languages that have been suppressed or endangered through colonization. It is important because language carries culture, worldview, ceremony, and relationship in ways that cannot be fully captured in translation. When a language is revitalized, entire ways of knowing and being are kept alive for future generations.
Rooted in the Past, Shaping the Future
Indigenous resurgence is not a moment in history. It is a living, ongoing, self-determined assertion of who Indigenous peoples are and who they will continue to be, on their own land, in their own languages, and by their own laws.
For organizations committed to cultural safety, understanding resurgence is not a peripheral concern. It is central to the work. You cannot genuinely support Indigenous employees, clients, or students without understanding the broader movement toward Indigenous self-determination of which their lives are a part.
Culturally Committed walks alongside Indigenous communities and the organizations that serve them. Our mentors, including Kim Trottier and other experienced practitioners, bring lived experience and relational depth to every engagement.
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Read next: Decolonizing Language: The Words We Choose, and Why They Count
Start here: What Is Cultural Safety? Understanding What It Means to Feel Seen
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