Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization for the Sake of Our People
Spencer Phips Bounty Proclamation. British 1755 proclamation offering 40 pounds for an adult Penobscot male scalp, 20 pounds for the scalp of a Penobscot woman or child. The original handwritten document is in the Massachusetts State Archives.
Photograph by Jeremy Dennis; courtesy of Jeremy Dennis.
The late Elizabeth Andrews, my great grandmother, was a descendant of some of the first generations to survive the genocidal bounty.
Photograph courtesy of Penobscot Cultural and Historic Preservation Archives.
The image you see here are teepees in Edmonton, across the river at Rossdale flats, just below the legislative building in the early 1900s. Ceremonies were likely not happening inside as they had been prohibited for over 20 years, meanwhile in the legislative building the University act was being drafted and directly across the river, the U of A was being developed to one day be renown as one of the leading research institutions in Canada, a primary vessel of knowledge. During the same time, ancestors of Treaty 6 were being legally dispossessed of their primary sources of knowledge transfer.
Indigenous Knowledge Mobilization: A Purposeful Collaboration Between Indigenous Communities and Higher Education (SSHRC Insight Grant)
Research Funding & Awards
2018-2023, SSHRC Insight Grant , co-applicants Dr. Cora Weber-Pillwax, University of Alberta Indigenous Peoples Education, Dr. Claudine Louis, President Maskwachis Cultural College, Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change University of British Columbia, Dr. Evelyn Steinhauer, University of Alberta Indigenous Peoples Education, Chief Tony Alexis, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, John Crier, Elder Advisor *due to covid-19 project has been extended
2018-2021, Alberta Ministry of Education Grant
2016-2017, University of Alberta Expanding Inclusiveness Grant, internal SSHRC
2014-2015, University of Alberta SAS Grant
2011-2013, University of Alberta Research Start up Grant
2011, University of Alberta Office of the Provost Innovation Grant
Teaching
2013 University of Alberta Human Rights Teaching Award
Mentoring & Community
Leadership Awards
2016 Confederacy of Treaty 6 Acknowledgement of Outstanding Service
2015 Feather Presentation, Penobscot Nation
As a tribal member of the Penobscot Nation, I am of Waponahki peoples (also written as Wabanaki) meaning, “people of the dawn” and referring to the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq and Abenaki peoples who live in Maine and the Maritime Provinces of Canada and have formed a post-contact political alliance, the Wabanaki Confederacy. In Waponahki culture, as well as many other Indigenous cultures, an eagle feather is the highest honour awarded to an individual. The feather symbolizes trust, honour, strength, determination, wisdom, power and freedom, and is presented to an individual who has given exemplary service to the community.
2011 Pendleton Blanket Presentation & Ceremony, Indigenous Peoples Education
Receiving a Star/Pendleton blanket (or another blanket of special significance) is an oral intertribal Indigenous tradition – a ceremony that has been practiced for centuries. There are a great number of details and layers of understanding of the significance of this gift. Being wrapped in a blanket is one of the highest honours that can be bestowed upon a person.
2011 Feather Presentation, Penobscot Nation
1998 Feather Presentation, Wabanaki Women’s Gathering
1997 Feather Presentation, Awarded by Penobscot Elder Butch Phillips
Thomas Moore, Cree: Regina Indian Residential School 1891
Library & Archives of Canada NL-022474
Carlisle Indian Residential School 1879
Over 8000 attended from over 140 different tribes including the Penobscot Nation 87 tribal members.
What would happen to our research if we thought with our hearts, if we embraced our hearts as deeply connected to our minds?
What if we recognized openly in our lives that our Indigenous minds are sophisticated and that our epistemologies
reflect and contain that mind and sophistication?
-Sockbeson, 2011