Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage

Dr. Marie Battiste is a Mi’kmaw educator and professor in the Indian and Northern Education Program at the University of Saskatchewan. Her historical research of Mi’kmaw literacy and education as a graduate student at Harvard University and later at Stanford University, where she received her doctorate degree in curriculum and teacher education, provided the foundation for her later writings in cognitive imperialism, linguistic and cultural integrity, and the decolonization of Aboriginal education.

A recipient of two honorary degrees—from St. Mary’s University, Halifax, and from the University of Maine at Farmington—she has worked actively with First Nations schools as an administrator, teacher, consultant, and curriculum developer, advancing Aboriginal epistemology, languages, pedagogy, and research. Her research interests are in initiating institutional changes to decolonize education, language, and social justice policy and power, and in devising educational approaches that recognize and affirm the political and cultural diversity of Canada.

She is senior editor of First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds (UBC Press, 1995), editor of Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (UBC Press, 2000), and author of Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit (Purich Publishing, 2013). She is a board member of the International Research Institute (IRI) for Maori and Indigenous Education in New Zealand and a member of the Board of Governors for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Canada. In 2008, Dr. Battiste received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. She is currently Academic Director, Aboriginal Education Research Centre (AERC), College of Education, University of Saskatchewan.

James (Sa’ke’j) Youngblood Henderson is Chickasaw, born to the Bear Clan of the Chickasaw Nation and Cheyenne Tribe in Oklahoma. Sa’ke’j is one of the leading tribal philosophers, advocates, and strategists for North American Indians. In 1974, he was one of the first American Indians to receive a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School. After graduation, he sought through scholarship and litigation to restore Indigenous culture, institutions, and rights.

In Canada, he served as a leading constitutional advisor for the Assembly of First Nations and the Mi’kmaw Nation, and he is a noted human rights lawyer and member of the Advisory Board of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is currently a member of the College of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, and the senior administrator and research director of the Native Law Centre.

He is the author of Mi’kmaw Concordat (1997), co-author of The Road: Indian Tribes and Political Liberty (1980), co-author of Aboriginal Tenure in the Constitution of Canada (2000), and co-editor of Continuing Poundmaker and Riel’s Quest (Purich Publishing, 1995). His achievements in international and national law have been recognized by being named Indigenous Peoples’ Counsel (2005), and receiving the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Law and Justice (2006) and an Honorary Doctorate of Laws, Carlton University (2007).