Dr. Marie Battiste, the Academic Director of the Aboriginal Education Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, will speak on “Animating Indigenous Knowledge in Education: From Resilience to Renaissance” on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center. The public is invited to attend this free event. Battiste also will speak to several University classes and community groups, including the local Native American community, during her visit.
For more than 30 years, Battiste has researched Aboriginal culture and experience and how they are related to lifelong learning. Her studies have ranged from protection of Aboriginal knowledge, heritage and culture to Native American learning paradigms to university retention and access of Aboriginal graduate students.
Battiste is the author of three books, including Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision in 2000. She also is the author of chapters in more than 20 books that have been published around the world as well as articles that have appeared in numerous journals.
In 2008, she received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation. She received the First Nations Publishing Award and the Saskatchewan Book Award in 2000 with J. Youngblood Henderson, for Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge. Battiste was honored to be the recipient of an Eagle Feather during Mi’kmaq Treaty Day in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on Oct. 1, 1995. This special honor was presented by the Mi’kmaq Grand Council, Mawio’mi.
Dr. Battiste completed the first two years of her teacher training at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and then went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in elementary and junior high education from the University of Maine at Farmington in 1971. She then earned her master’s degree in education from Harvard University in 1974. In 1984, she received her doctorate in education from Stanford University. Her doctoral dissertation was on An Historical Investigation of the Social and Cultural Consequences of Micmac Literacy.
The University’s Distinguished Lecture Series was established in 1999. Each year, the UDLS Committee sponsors five to six speakers who come from Maine and other states representing a range of disciplines and viewpoints. While the emphasis tends to be on featuring visiting academics it is not exclusively so. The speakers typically spend two days at the University meeting with classes and presenting a community lecture.
For more information about Battiste’s visit, contact the Media Relations Office at 768-9452.