Indigenous Research Methods in Action speaker series

Indigenous Research Methods in Action

 

Speaker series

The series showcases SFU researchers who use Indigenous Research Methods and highlight how these methods have been used in practice. Participants will deepen their understanding of Indigenous Research Methodologies by hearing from researchers who have experience doing this work. 

 


Fall 2023 speakers

Tsatia Adzich

Tsatia Adzich

Tsatia Adzich is Cree-Metis (Tri-River Metis community) on her mother's side, and Montenegrin/English on her father's side. She graduated from SFU in 2016 with her BA (Honors) in Communications and First Nations Studies, from UVic in 2017 with an MA, from UNBC with her second Master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Geography, Political Science, and Gender Studies) in 2019, and began her PhD at SFU in 2020 in Geography.

Tsatia is currently a Community Ambassador with the Surrey Urban Indigenous Leadership Committee’s (SUILC) Skookum Surrey, and is deeply connected and accountable to the urban Indigenous community in Surrey.

Her PhD will contribute to emerging discourse on Indigenous urbanism by exploring the relationships between urban peoples and host nations in Surrey through beadwork.

 

Upcoming workshops

Next semester's workshops will be posted soon.

Summer 2023 speakers

Sdahl Ḵ’awaas, Lucy Bell

Sdahl Ḵ’awaas, Lucy Bell

Lucy Bell belongs to the Tsiits G’itanee Eagle clan of the Haida Nation. Her Master’s thesis focused on ancestral ways to strengthen the Haida language. Her PhD studies is telling the story of Haida repatriation as reconciliation. She is a Nation-based scholar, having learned Haida traditions from many Haida elders.  She has taken this knowledge with her in her academic journey. Lucy’s research is grounded in a Haida methodology, philosophies and values, bringing a Haida approach that honours her Ancestors.

 

 

 

Fall 2022 speakers

June Scudeler

June Scudeler biography and recording

 

June Scudeler

Dr. June Scudeler (Métis) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies, cross-appointed with the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. She received her PhD in English at UBC in 2016. Her research encompasses queer Indigenous studies, literature, film, and art. She is currently delving into Indigenous horror.

 

Watch the recording of June Scudeler's talk

Michaela McGuire (Jaad Gudgihljiwah) 

Michaela McGuire (Jaad Gudgihljiwah) biography and recording

 

Michaela McGuire

Michaela McGuire (Jaad Gudgihljiwah) is a current PhD Student and sessional instructor in SFU’s School of Criminology. Michaela’s ancestry is Haida, Ojibwe, Irish, and British. Her research interests include Haida justice, decolonization, and resurgence, Haida identity and belonging, racism against Indigenous peoples, self-determination and self-governance, Indigenous women, and corrections. She is currently living, working, and writing from her home in HIG̲aagilda (Skidegate), Haida Gwaii.

 

Watch the recording of Michaela McGuire (Jaad Gudgihljiwah)'s talk


Spring 2022 speakers

Alanaise Ferguson

Alanaise Ferguson biography and recording

 

Alanaise Ferguson

Alanaise Ferguson is an Anishinaabe psychologist and assistant professor in the SFU Faculty of Education, Counselling Psychology program. She incorporates her Indigenous language (Anishinaabemowen) as a vista into Anishinaabe worldview on issues related to health, healing, and well-being. She is an author, mother of three, and a resident in Tzeachten First Nation in Sto:lo Territory.

 

Watch the recording of Alanaise Ferguson's talk

Dorothy Christian

Dorothy Christian biography and recording

 

Dorothy Christian: a woman smiling, wearing glasses and a shawl, with her hair in a long braid.

Dorothy Cucw-la7 Christian’s cultural roots are in Splatsin, one of the 17 communities of the Secwepemc Nation.  She is the eldest of 10, has one daughter and over 65 nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews and as of May 2021 she became a great, great Auntie.  

Her research centralizes and privileges Indigenous knowledge systems, which illustrates the key roles of land, story, and cultural protocols.  Dorothy Cucw-la7 locates herself in the “cultural interface” (Nakata, 2002) – the place where Indigenous peoples have agency and meet Settler cultures without being bogged down and paralyzed by the usual colonial binaries. Her PhD research articulated some of the complexities of Indigenous research methodologies.  

The major themes of Dorothy’s work are:  Indigenous representation, Indigenous Visual Sovereignty and Aesthetics in Visual Narratives, Alliance building with white and people of color Settler cultures, and Reconciliation from her Secwepemc-Syilx perspective. 

She continues to serve in the Indigenous Film and Television sector as a Board Member of the Indigenous Screen Office in Toronto.  Dorothy has curated a 2018 program, The Voices From The Western Regions of Turtle Island, and she programmed the Victor Masayesva, Jr. Retrospective, Dawsoma:  Making Meaning at the ImagineNative film festival in Toronto -– the largest Indigenous film festival in the world.  

 

Watch the recording from Dorothy Christian's talk
 

 

Lyana Patrick 

Lyana Patrick biography and recording​​​​​

 

Lyana Patrick: A woman stands among trees in the west coast temperate rain forest, wearing a fuchsia jacket and smiling.

Lyana Patrick is Dakelh from the Stellat’en First Nation and Acadian/Scottish. She has worked in communications and education for over two decades. She was Education Coordinator in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia where she worked on curriculum development, managed education programs, and promoted knowledge translation of Indigenous research findings to health care providers and health sciences students. She has worked on evaluation projects connected to Indigenous health and education, including for the City of Vancouver where she helped design community engagement for a municipal poverty reduction strategy. She received a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to pursue a PhD in the School of Community and Regional Planning where in 2019 she became the first Indigenous PhD graduate.

Lyana is currently an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences where her work focuses on the intersection of Indigenous health, planning and justice. She incorporates film and other multimedia in her work and is committed to public scholarship as a creative and collaborative process of exploration with Indigenous communities.

 

Watch the recording from Lyana Patrick's talk 

 Dara Kelly 

Dara Kelly biography and recording​​​​​

 

Dara Kelly

Dr. Dara Kelly is from the Leq’á:mel First Nation, part of the Stó: Coast Salish and completed her PhD at the University of Auckland Business School entitled, “Feed the people and you will never go hungry: Illuminating Coast Salish economy of affection”.

Her research explores Coast Salish philosophy of freedom, unfreedom, wealth and reciprocity and how that shapes Coast Salish philosophy of economy.

Dr Kelly is a recipient of the 2020 Early in Career Award for CUFA BC Distinguished Academic Awards.

 

Watch the recording of Dara Kelly's talk


Location
via Zoom (link will be sent to participants 24 hours before the workshop/event begins)
Contact for further information
research-commons@sfu.ca