Black and Indigenous educators share sociopolitical histories of transformative and community-based practices for developing and disseminating knowledge. They challenge an educational structure upheld by western institutions.  This literature review primarily reflects the voices of Black and Indigenous scholars who experience intergenerational trauma and systemic education inequities, grieving loss of land, language, ways of knowing. Their healing lies in resistance. Resistance is rooted in reimagining and creating spaces that nourish, support, and uplift both students’ and teachers' emotional and intellectual selves.  In Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope, bell hooks, author and social activist, quoted author Parker Palmer who said in To Know as We are Known, “The origin of knowledge is love…the reunification and reconstruction of broken selves and the world” (2003,p.132).  The act of knowing is intrinsically tied to loving; collectively and individually, we embrace one another as we learn about ourselves. It is through “...such knowing [that]we are known and are known as members of one community” (p.132).

It is in this spirit that my thesis sets out to understand the idea of creating school curricula in community. In particular, my work uncovers curriculum development in partnership with those whose lived experiences and visions center on bringing truth to history, and reconciliation through learning and understanding across a broad community. I draw upon the existing literature to explore Indigenous communities, prioritizing learning and relational pedagogy. I look for examples that are sovereignty-seeking and challenging the western paradigm of education. I begin by looking at theories of decolonizing education that rethinks and challenges traditional approaches to education. I then explore the importance of how community-based education is synonymous with place-based education. Finally, I explore the importance of storytelling and oral histories as a way to reshape western ways of telling history.