Biographical Note:
Lunar Eclispe Dec 21, 2010 Photo credit: Cam Sherriff © hers
My traditional/spirit name is Gii-Zhigaate-Mnidoo-Kwe and I am Algonquin Anishinaabe, Mnakinag Ndoodem. My personal colours are yellow, light purple, turquoise, and rose/pink.
On my father's side my ancestors were from the Kiji Sìbì (Ottawa River Valley) where eventually they settled in the Golden Lake reserve community now called Pikwàkanagàn First Nation. Through the sex discrimination encoded in the earlier Indian Acts my grandmother and great-grandmothers were disenfranchised from their community. Despite remedial legislation to the Indian Act in 1985, and more recently in 2011, new forms of sex discrimination continue to prevent me from gaining status registration.
Essentially, I am denied status registration due to an unknown grandfather that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) assumes is a non-Indian. For me this AANDC assumption has far reaching implications: it results in the denial of First Nation band membership in my father's and grandmother's band; it results in being designated a non-voting member of cultural organizations; it results/resulted in the denial of my treaty rights such as health care and education funding; it results in the marginalization of my rights in the current Algonquin land claims and self-government process; and further, it results in the denial of citizenship in the larger Anishinabek Nation.
For 17 years I have been working on a Charter challenge with Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. I am behind Sharon McIvor on challenging these new forms of sex discrimination. Recently, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights has requested premission to record my oral history regarding this process.
On my mother's side I am French, Irish, as well as Indigenous. Interestingly, through my mother, I am a descendant of the first French child born in New France of two French parents. This child's name was Helene Desportes and her parents were Pierre Desports and Francois Langlois. In the 1620s Francois Langlois was one of only two women first brought to the "New World." As a descendant of Helene my lineage traces back to the very early settlers.
I have a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies, a Masters degree in Canadian and Native Studies, and an undergraduate degree in Social Cultural Anthropology (summa cum laude). I also hold a diploma in Chemical Technology and have worked in the field of environmental science and protection for 12 years.
I am both an Ontario Graduate and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council scholar, as well as both a National Aboriginal Achievement and a Casino Rama Award recipient. I am also a Spotted Eagle Feather recipient (from the right wing), and moving from tobacco offered, a carrier of the Treaty at Niagara Wampum Bundle.
Currently my manuscript titled "Debwewin Journey: A Personal Truth of the Algonquin Land Claims and Self-Government Process" is in the peer-review stage of publication with a leading university press. This work offers a first ever insider's account of the land claims and self-government process. Within this work, from ancient traditional teachings, I also developed and articulated a new scholarly Anishinaabe methodology titled "Debwewin Journey". My article titled "Debwewin Journey: A Methodology and Model of Knowing" has been published in a leading peer-reviewed international academic journal: AlterNative. The complete reference to this publication can be found here under the heading Selected Academic Publications.
In my academic, activist, and community work as a learner-researcher I am situated within the Anishinaabeg worldview and the Indigenist paradigm where the goals of mino-bimadiziwin (the good life) and self-determination guides; where Indigenous (Anishinaabe) knowledge is placed at the core; and where I disseminate knowledge in meaningful ways to community members through the methods of experiential knowledge, wholistic knowing, a narrative writing style, and oral storytelling where memory is key. I feel strongly that these ways of knowing are valid forms of knowledge production that requires equal space. As such, committed to community knowledge production and capacity building, I write for Anishinabek News, the Ontario Native Women’s Association Newsletter, and Canadian Dimension. I also successfully present and publish in both domestic and international peer-reviewed academic conferences and journals such as Atlantis, Canadian Woman Studies, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium Journal, and AlterNative.
My community work and most of my news articles, conference abstracts, and journal publications can be found on this website. Chi-Miigwetch for your interest.
On my father's side my ancestors were from the Kiji Sìbì (Ottawa River Valley) where eventually they settled in the Golden Lake reserve community now called Pikwàkanagàn First Nation. Through the sex discrimination encoded in the earlier Indian Acts my grandmother and great-grandmothers were disenfranchised from their community. Despite remedial legislation to the Indian Act in 1985, and more recently in 2011, new forms of sex discrimination continue to prevent me from gaining status registration.
Essentially, I am denied status registration due to an unknown grandfather that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) assumes is a non-Indian. For me this AANDC assumption has far reaching implications: it results in the denial of First Nation band membership in my father's and grandmother's band; it results in being designated a non-voting member of cultural organizations; it results/resulted in the denial of my treaty rights such as health care and education funding; it results in the marginalization of my rights in the current Algonquin land claims and self-government process; and further, it results in the denial of citizenship in the larger Anishinabek Nation.
For 17 years I have been working on a Charter challenge with Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto. I am behind Sharon McIvor on challenging these new forms of sex discrimination. Recently, the Canadian Museum of Human Rights has requested premission to record my oral history regarding this process.
On my mother's side I am French, Irish, as well as Indigenous. Interestingly, through my mother, I am a descendant of the first French child born in New France of two French parents. This child's name was Helene Desportes and her parents were Pierre Desports and Francois Langlois. In the 1620s Francois Langlois was one of only two women first brought to the "New World." As a descendant of Helene my lineage traces back to the very early settlers.
I have a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies, a Masters degree in Canadian and Native Studies, and an undergraduate degree in Social Cultural Anthropology (summa cum laude). I also hold a diploma in Chemical Technology and have worked in the field of environmental science and protection for 12 years.
I am both an Ontario Graduate and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council scholar, as well as both a National Aboriginal Achievement and a Casino Rama Award recipient. I am also a Spotted Eagle Feather recipient (from the right wing), and moving from tobacco offered, a carrier of the Treaty at Niagara Wampum Bundle.
Currently my manuscript titled "Debwewin Journey: A Personal Truth of the Algonquin Land Claims and Self-Government Process" is in the peer-review stage of publication with a leading university press. This work offers a first ever insider's account of the land claims and self-government process. Within this work, from ancient traditional teachings, I also developed and articulated a new scholarly Anishinaabe methodology titled "Debwewin Journey". My article titled "Debwewin Journey: A Methodology and Model of Knowing" has been published in a leading peer-reviewed international academic journal: AlterNative. The complete reference to this publication can be found here under the heading Selected Academic Publications.
In my academic, activist, and community work as a learner-researcher I am situated within the Anishinaabeg worldview and the Indigenist paradigm where the goals of mino-bimadiziwin (the good life) and self-determination guides; where Indigenous (Anishinaabe) knowledge is placed at the core; and where I disseminate knowledge in meaningful ways to community members through the methods of experiential knowledge, wholistic knowing, a narrative writing style, and oral storytelling where memory is key. I feel strongly that these ways of knowing are valid forms of knowledge production that requires equal space. As such, committed to community knowledge production and capacity building, I write for Anishinabek News, the Ontario Native Women’s Association Newsletter, and Canadian Dimension. I also successfully present and publish in both domestic and international peer-reviewed academic conferences and journals such as Atlantis, Canadian Woman Studies, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium Journal, and AlterNative.
My community work and most of my news articles, conference abstracts, and journal publications can be found on this website. Chi-Miigwetch for your interest.
