From Panel Chair: At the 2006 ISME World Conference in Kuala Lumpur, members of the History Standing Committee (HSC) decided that in future conferences we would honor and highlight music education history of the country hosting the world conference. For the 2026 World Conference the proposed Panel focuses on the unique and diverse contexts of generational transmission of musics in Indigenous communities in Canada, in historical and contemporary contexts. First Nations musics are purposeful and meaningful to the songmakers and listeners, and reflect a deep connection to land, people, history, language, and the spirit world. Songs and music-making practices are passed on to permitted others through oral transmission. Despite colonization-based acts and laws designed to eradicate Indigenous languages, ceremonies, ways of life, and cultural practices, including song-making, many songs still survived through oral tradition through Elders and the memories and secret practices of residential school children.Guiding Questions: The questions that guide the panel presentations are as follows: How were cultural practices including music transmitted historically in your communities? What unique pedagogies of transmission existed in those communities? Where and how did music transmission take place? Who was regarded as a culture bearer? In what ways, if any, did western forms of music education influence how music was transmitted in Indigenous communities? And is there evidence that Indigenous music transmission impacted western music pedagogy? What efforts have been made to bring Indigenous music from the margins to the core curriculum of public education? What insights can be gained from such a process?Proposed Format of Panel Session: The Panel session will open with a Welcome from local Indigenous musician (TBD). This is followed by fifteen-minute contributions from three Indigenous music educators. Two non-Indigenous music researchers offer ten-minute reflections on their work with Indigenous communities. The Chair will then moderate dialogue between panel members and audience members Indigenous Music EducatorsPresenter 1: I speak about music transmission from personal experiences as an Inuk violinist. Historically, music transmission in northern Labrador is a shared activity. Competition is nearly non-existent and Indigenous people tend to thrive in community-based music making. The goal is to return and develop a violin method book with culturally responsive materials from northern Labrador. I also envision creating a hybrid learning environment for students and people of all ages in northern Labrador.Presenter 2: I have been working on Indigenizing music education for the past decade. This process has gone through many phases as it has for many or most music educators as we seek authentic and appropriate ways to teach Indigenous music in a good way. My journey was first to find music created for students in music classrooms. However, over the last five years I have come to realize the most appropriate and enriching learning experience I can provide students is to partner with Indigenous community members and collaborate on music projects together. From performances to research of Indigenous song practices I seek to help build relationships in classrooms where these collaborations can flourish across Canada.Presenter 3: The introduction of western music instruments, genres (e.g., children’s folk songs, religious, contemporary styles), sound recording technology, and written notation in music education disrupted traditional oral transmission methods that depended on memorization techniques, such as repetition and physical proximity, and music styles. But not entirely. Oral transmission methods still thrive alongside western music education pedagogy. While western music pedagogy includes oral forms of learning music such as rote learning, this can be viewed as similar to Indigenous oral transmission methods, although there exists a lack of evidence that Indigenous music-makers willingly and knowingly contributed to its influence.Non-Indigenous ResearchersResearcher 1: Indigenizing the music classroom involves not only adding traditional Indigenous musical repertoire as respectfully permitted but also foregrounding contemporary Indigenous artists. These opportunities to engage with contemporary Indigenous artists through recordings or residencies move beyond content, to expanding pedagogical strategies in teaching many musical traditions. Engaging with Indigenous musical forms through observation, listening or performing as appropriate is a path to entering the difficult questions of the coloniality of music education, and the history of repression of traditional art forms in Canada. Researcher 2: Over the past nine years, I have researched with colleagues how K-12 music educators have worked with culture bearers to introduce local First Nations “musics” to students in their classes so that music teachers across the province of British Columbia have examples of how to respectfully do this work. Since 2017, we have been guided in this ongoing research by urban Indigenous individuals and organizations. I will outline the trajectory of our work together and reflect on what I have learned as a non-Indigenous researcher in this space.