Biographical Note:
Lunar Eclispe Dec 21, 2010 Photo credit: Cam Sherriff © hers
Short Biographical Note:
Lynn is Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley, Ontario Canada. Lynn describes herself as a learner-researcher, thinker, writer, Black Face blogger, and she has been an Indigenous human rights advocate for 27 years. Lynn works to eliminate the continued sex discrimination in the Indian Act, and she is also an outspoken critic of the contemporary land claims and self-government process, what many call the contemporary treaty process. She has a doctorate in Indigenous Studies, a Master of Arts in Canadian and Native Studies, and an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. She also has a diploma in Chemical Technology and worked for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for 12 years in the area of toxic organic analysis of Ontario’s waterways. While advocating for change is currently part of what she does, she is also interested in traditional knowledge systems that guide the Anishinaabeg forward to a good life.
Long Biographical Note:
Lynn describes herself as a learner-researcher, thinker, writer, Black Face blogger, and she has been an Indigenous human rights advocate for 27 years. After years of working within the environmental field, utilizing western scientific methodology and methods, Lynn learned that western science, while powerful, has limitations in shaping and changing human behaviour and thus caring for the water. Lynn left to pursue a different understanding of the world and began university in the discipline of psychology, eventually turning to anthropology. It was within anthropology where she came to appreciate there are equally valid and parallel ways of understanding the world and she turned her attention to her ancestral Indigenous knowledge.
Lynn, both an Ontario Graduate Scholar and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Scholar, has a doctorate in Indigenous Studies. Lynn is also a Spotted Eagle Feather recipient (from the right wing), and moving from tobacco offered, a carrier of the 1764 Treaty of Niagara Wampum Bundle which she re-created as part of her doctoral studies.
In her academic and community work as a learner-researcher and advocate of Indigenous women’s human rights, Lynn is situated within the Anishinaabeg worldview and the Indigenist paradigm where the goal is mino-pimadiziwin (the good life) and self-determination. She chooses to disseminate knowledge in meaningful ways to community members through the methods of oral and textual storytelling with all that is inherent such as experiential and heart knowledge. These ways of knowing, she believes, are valid forms of knowledge production that require equal space in the academy.
Recently (October 2012), Lynn collaborated with The Canadian Museum of Human Rights where her oral history, advocating and seeking change for Indigenous women and their children, was recorded. In addition, she recently published a book with Ningwakwe Learning Press, that joyfully celebrates Indigenous knowledge, titled Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts.
Despite vision limitations Lynn has transformed her dissertation – A Debwewin Journey through the Algonquin land claims and self-government process – into a manuscript and is currently waiting to hear if it is worthy of publication. Within this work Lynn developed and relied on an ancient traditional Anishinaabe way of knowing as her methodology: Debwewin Miikan-Zhidchigewin. This methodology was recently published in AlterNative, a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Committed to community knowledge production and capacity building, Lynn writes for Anishinabek News, the Ontario Native Women’s Association Newsletter, Canadian Dimension, and Rabble. She also presents and publishes in domestic and international peer-reviewed academic conferences and journals such as AlterNative, Atlantis, Canadian Woman Studies, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium Journal. Her most recent publication is with the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement. In total Lynn has well over 70 academic and community publications.
For the past 17 years, Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto has represented Lynn in a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in section six of the Indian Act. With no brick, no mortar and no funding in 2010 Lynn began a National Strategy to raise awareness of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s genocidal unstated paternity policy. You can find information about her National Strategy on her personal website at www.lynngehl.com as well as on Facebook: Unknown and Unstated Paternity and the Indian Act.
Most of her publications are found within this website. Miigwetch for your interest.
Lynn, both an Ontario Graduate Scholar and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Scholar, has a doctorate in Indigenous Studies. Lynn is also a Spotted Eagle Feather recipient (from the right wing), and moving from tobacco offered, a carrier of the 1764 Treaty of Niagara Wampum Bundle which she re-created as part of her doctoral studies.
In her academic and community work as a learner-researcher and advocate of Indigenous women’s human rights, Lynn is situated within the Anishinaabeg worldview and the Indigenist paradigm where the goal is mino-pimadiziwin (the good life) and self-determination. She chooses to disseminate knowledge in meaningful ways to community members through the methods of oral and textual storytelling with all that is inherent such as experiential and heart knowledge. These ways of knowing, she believes, are valid forms of knowledge production that require equal space in the academy.
Recently (October 2012), Lynn collaborated with The Canadian Museum of Human Rights where her oral history, advocating and seeking change for Indigenous women and their children, was recorded. In addition, she recently published a book with Ningwakwe Learning Press, that joyfully celebrates Indigenous knowledge, titled Anishinaabeg Stories: Featuring Petroglyphs, Petrographs, and Wampum Belts.
Despite vision limitations Lynn has transformed her dissertation – A Debwewin Journey through the Algonquin land claims and self-government process – into a manuscript and is currently waiting to hear if it is worthy of publication. Within this work Lynn developed and relied on an ancient traditional Anishinaabe way of knowing as her methodology: Debwewin Miikan-Zhidchigewin. This methodology was recently published in AlterNative, a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Committed to community knowledge production and capacity building, Lynn writes for Anishinabek News, the Ontario Native Women’s Association Newsletter, Canadian Dimension, and Rabble. She also presents and publishes in domestic and international peer-reviewed academic conferences and journals such as AlterNative, Atlantis, Canadian Woman Studies, Canadian Journal of Native Studies, and the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium Journal. Her most recent publication is with the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement. In total Lynn has well over 70 academic and community publications.
For the past 17 years, Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto has represented Lynn in a section 15 Charter challenge regarding the continued sex discrimination in section six of the Indian Act. With no brick, no mortar and no funding in 2010 Lynn began a National Strategy to raise awareness of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s genocidal unstated paternity policy. You can find information about her National Strategy on her personal website at www.lynngehl.com as well as on Facebook: Unknown and Unstated Paternity and the Indian Act.
Most of her publications are found within this website. Miigwetch for your interest.
| gehl_bio.pdf |
