Indigegogy in the Classroom

Presented by Dr. Kathy Absolon

In this presentation, Dr. Kathy Absolon will discuss the second edition of her newly released book, "Kaandossiwin How We Come to Know: Indigenous Re-Search Methodologies." She will provide a brief history of research of Indigenous Peoples and share her development of “Indigenous re-search,” which is steeped in Indigenous ways of learning through an Indigenous lens. She will also speak about her research on colonial trauma and how embedded within Indigenous knowledge systems are methodologies that can guide knowledge production, aka: re-search.

This event will be held in English.

About Dr. Kathy Absolon

Kathy Absolon (Minogiizhigokwe – Shining Day Woman) is Anishinaabe kwe who is a community helper, knowledge carrier, seeker, educator, re-searcher, and writer. Kathy is a member of Flying Post First Nation Treaty 9. At the age of 60, Kathy carries truth stories about both a rich cultural history and Canada’s colonial history. Her lifetime of work in decolonial stories and Indigenous education has been informed by her land-based philosophy.

Currently, Kathy is a Professor in the Indigenous Field of Study, Masters of Social Work Program in the Faculty of Social Work and the Director of the Centre for Indigegogy at Wilfrid Laurier University. She spent the first 20 years of her life in the bush in Cranberry Lake. The land, she says, taught her so much about life and she continues to reflect and draw on her land-based teachings.

Her passion for wellness among her peoples and the restoration of Indigenous knowledge in Creation has been one of the driving forces in her life work as an Indigenous wholistic practitioner in child welfare, Native mental health, youth justice, and community work. Her academic and cultural work has been in restoring, reclaiming, and re-righting Indigenous history, knowledge, and cultural worldviews, and making the invisible visible. She promotes this through Indigenous research methodologies and published “Kaandossiwin, How We Come to know” (2011). She has authored other works in wholistic practice, social inclusion, reconciliation, community healing and wellness, and Indigenous knowledge.