Biography
Dr. Marie Battiste is ‘Lnu, a member of the Potlotek First Nation, a Special Advisor to the Vice President (Academic), Provost and to Unama’ki College at Cape Breton University Professor Emerita on Decolonizing the Academy. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Saskatchewan, a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow, and an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada. A graduate of Harvard and Stanford Universities, her passion, research and scholarly work in decolonizing education, cognitive justice through balancing diverse knowledge systems and languages, and protecting Indigenous knowledges have earned her four honorary degrees from University of Ottawa, Thompson Rivers University, University of Maine, and St. Mary’s University.
Her scholarly work includes books, chapters in books, journals, and reports, notably Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit and Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge, and multiple edited book collections, including Visioning Mi’kmaw Humanities: Indigenizing the Academy (CBU Press, 2016); Living Treaties: Narrating Mi’kmaw Treaty Relations (CBU Press, 2016); Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (UBC Press, 2000) and First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds (UBC Press, 1995). More recently, she co-authored a report for the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences Igniting Change: Final Report and Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (2021) and co-guest edited the Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Based Research, Teaching, and Learning on the theme Indigenous and Trans-systemic Knowledge Systems.