The Core Team
This is a very strong research team with a near equal balance of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal contributors. This team of academics and educational practitioners is the seed group for what we hope will be a much larger team of participants. Building respectful relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal educational theorists, administrators, policy makers and practitioners is one of the principal aims of this research. We will expand the research team as we involve other universities and colleges and as Aboriginal educational experts and Elders provide critical input
Anne Godlewska, Principal Investigator and Emeritus Professor, Geography at Queen's University
Anne is a specialist in colonialism and the history of geographic thought now working on education about Aboriginal peoples and issues in Canada. She oversees the project and the development of the instrument; negotiates with universities for access; raises funds; supervises post-docs and graduate students working the project; presents results to school boards, ministries of education, Aboriginal communities and the press; and writes and co-writes articles.
Laura Schaefli, Postdoctoral Fellow
Laura’s research interests lie in decolonizing methodologies, feminist and postcolonial theories, philosophies of knowledge and ignorance and geographies of education. She completed her PhD at Queen's in spring 2018. In her role as a post-doc she works with the PI on the development of the questionnaire, oversees the dissemination of the questionnaire at each educational institution, and collaborates on publications.
Laurence Simard-Gagnon, Consultant and Translator
Laurence completed her PhD in the Department of Geography at Queen's University. Initially trained as a community worker, she continues her involvement in community groups and collectives in Québec City organizing on issues of social justice and violence against women. Her research interests involve women’s daily lived experiences and practices, mothering/motherwork, intersectionality and differences, care, cultural work and cultural continuity. She completed her Master’s at Laval University studying practices of berry picking and use of Inuit women in Inukjuak, Nunavik. Her PhD work looked at daily experiences of mothering and the linguistic minority of francophone mothers in Kingston, ON.
Christopher Lamb, British Columbia Specialist
Christopher completed his PhD in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen's University. Having worked in reforestation throughout the interior of BC for over a decade, he brings his experiences in resource communities to his work on unsettling education in BC and Canada. His research interests lie in philosophies of place, place-based co-existence, unsettling education, and postcolonial and phenomenological theories. For his PhD dissertation he studied the roll-out of BC's new curriculum, focusing on the intersections between settler-nationalist ideology, place, and education. In his role with the Project, he contributes to the development and dissemination of the questionnaire, publications, and presentations.
Melissa A. Forcione, PhD Candidate
Melissa is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at Queen's University. The purpose of her research is to explore the Québec public elementary and secondary teachers' experiences working in a small resource town situated in the Haute-Mauricie region. She looks to better understand the conditions of teaching in this place and the understandings and awareness of diverse realities that exist and actively circulate here. She hopes to contribute to discussions on public education’s role in shaping awareness of diverse local Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories and realities and to inform provincial and local educational initiatives that promote positive intercultural community relations and dialogue, decolonization, and reconciliation.
Kim Buitenhuis, PhD Candidate
Kim is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at Queen’s University. Her research interests lie in the areas of philosophies of ignorance, structures of colonialism, decolonizing education and settler-Indigenous relations broadly. Her dissertation focuses on the role of teachers in educating settlers about Indigenous topics and Canada as a setter colonial state.
John Rose, Curriculum Research Specialist for Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, and British Columbia
JR completed his PhD in the Department of Geography & Planning at Queen’s University. His research interests fall within the realms of historical political ecology and settler colonial studies. For his doctoral project, he interrogated the role of European environmental and political thought in creating provincial parks and causing land dispossession in nineteenth century Ontario. JR has mainly provided research support for the Awareness Project, examining textbooks and curriculum documents.
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Elizabeth Nelson, PhD Candidate
Elizabeth is a MA student in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. She is currently researching places of public memory in the context of Indigenous representation, and reconciliation in Kingston. More broadly, she enjoys engaging with topics of heritage, commemorative landscapes, place-making, decolonization, and reconciliation.
Breah Talan, MA
Breah graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences and a Master of Arts in Health Geography. Her research looked at the accessibility of MRI services throughout Ontario, particularly in relation to wait times. Breah continues to be passionate about ensuring the equitable delivery of high-quality health services for all residents in our publicly funded health care system. She currently lives in Vancouver, BC, where she is a Project Coordinator for the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council. In this role, Breah supports initiatives aimed at building capability for health care quality improvement throughout the province.
Lindsay Morcom, Coordinator, Aboriginal Teacher's Education Program at Queen's University
Lindsay is an interdisciplinary researcher with experience in language documentation, theoretical linguistics, and education. She has taught at Oxford University and at First Nations University in Regina, Saskatchewan. She is now Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program at Queen’s. She assists in developing the questionnaire and takes part in research design.
Nicola Thomas, Professor, Health Science at St. Lawrence College
Nicola is a professor in the Practical Nursing program at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, Ontario. She has been instrumental in bringing the Awareness survey to St. Lawrence and will help to expand the project to other colleges in Ontario and Canada-wide.
Lisa Korteweg, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education at Lakehead University
Lisa Korteweg has worked on Aboriginal education with a special focus on the training and mentalities of teachers and teacher educators. She helps build contacts with communities in northern Ontario, takes part in research design, works on knowledge mobilization amongst teachers and provides significant intellectual leadership.
Gail Fondahl, Professor, Geography at the University of Northern British Columbia
Gail Fondahl has worked extensively on Aboriginal land rights and meanings in both an international and regional context. She provides university and community contacts in BC, helps in the internationalization of the project, takes part in research design, especially in BC, and provides significant intellectual leadership.
Kirk Anderson, Dean of Education, Memorial University
Kirk Anderson is Dean of Education at Memorial University and is a specialist in First Nations Education. As he is familiar with education administration at all levels in the Province, he has been able to help us with the content of our Newfoundland survey and will play an important role in knowledge mobilization through the Ministries of Education (Ministry of Education (k-12) and Department of Advanced Education and Skills) in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, Vice Provost (Aboriginal Initiatives) at Lakehead University
Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux is an anthropologist, sociologist and advocate for the wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples. Very knowledgeable about curriculum and educational hierarchies and their impact on Aboriginal people, she provides valuable community and academic contacts in Ontario, takes part in research design, will work with us in the northern Ontario consultations and provides significant intellectual leadership.
Kevin Reed, Aboriginal Education Consultant at the Limestone District School Board
Kevin is the Aboriginal Education Consultant for the Limestone District School Board in Kingston and is very knowledgeable about Aboriginal issues, Aboriginal education and the state of knowledge of Canadians. Having designed important texts himself (Reed, Kevin. 1999 Aboriginal Peoples. Building for the Future, Toronto: Oxford University Press; Reed, Kevin. 2011 Aboriginal Peoples in Canada Grade 10-11, Pearson Canada), he knows a great deal about curricula and texts in Ontario and about what works with students and what does not. He consults on development of the test instrument, analysis of texts and helps coordinate and communicate with ministries of education, school boards and principals
Heather Castleden, Associate Professor, Geography and Planning and Department of Public Health at Queen's University
Heather is a white settler scholar-ally with ancestral roots in England and Scotland. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Reconciling Relations for Health, Environments, and Communities and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning and the Department of Public Health Sciences at Queen’s University. As a broadly trained geographer, Heather mainly undertakes community-based participatory research in partnership with Indigenous peoples in Canada on issues that are important to them and fall within her programmatic areas of expertise: the nexus of culture, place, and power; and health equity through social and environmental justice lenses. Since 2009, she has been the Director of the Health, Environment, and Communities Research Lab, a vibrant community of justice-oriented research associates, trainees, and staff.
Ryan Walker, Associate Professor, Geography and Planning at the University of Saskatchewan
Ryan Walker works in Indigeneity in the city and planning with First Nations and Métis communities. He is well known in Aboriginal communities in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and can guide us as we come into Saskatchewan as well as helping us find talented local research students. He is also invaluable in knowledge mobilization.
Susan Delisle, Communications
Susan has worked with the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation for about 14 years and has been present through a number of conflicts of jurisdiction regarding lands and resources. In all of these experiences she has found that a fundamental barrier to successful resolution/reconciliation is the fundamental lack of knowledge of Aboriginal rights and perspectives held by most Ontario residents. Education is thus of critical importance in preventing future conflict, and resolving divergent perspectives that lead to conflict.
Statistical Team
Andrew Coombs, Statistician
Andrew is a Master of Education student in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. Originally involved in paediatric cancer research, he now focuses on how educators approach assessment decisions. Andrew has been involved in the Awareness Project since Spring 2016
Chloe Hudson, Statistician
Chloe is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology at Queen’s University. Her research focuses on understanding the social and cognitive factors that lead to the development and maintenance of major depression in adolescence. Chloe has conducted data analysis for the Awareness Project since April 2016 and is eager to continue her involvement in the 2016/2017 school year.
Jones Adjei, Statistician
Post-doctoral Fellow, Faculty of Nursing, University of British Columbia