Dr Shawn Wilson is from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Canada and lives on Syilx territory in Kelowna, British Columbia. He is an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and coordinates the Indigenous Knowledges Theme at the University of British Columbia.
Shawn has worked with Indigenous people worldwide and co-leads a research project aiming to define rules and guidelines for respecting and safeguarding sacred teachings, such as Ceremonial and Star Knowledge. He has spent time living, teaching and researching across Canada, the US, Australia, and Norway, along with supervising research projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
Shawn is the author of Research is Ceremony, which has sold out multiple printings. He is on the Board of Directors with the Tapestry Institute and has joined the newly established advisory group at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Shawn has presented at Goals House (Davos) as part of the World Economic Forum and the MIR Centre for Peace. He cites his three kids as his greatest achievement.
Shawn Wilson (he/him) BSc (U Manitoba), MA (U Alaska), PhD (Monash)
Tapestry Institute weaves Indigenous Knowledge to life through activities and publications that use Indigenous ways of knowing, learning about, and responding to the natural world. Our purpose in doing so is to enhance the ability of human beings to hear, understand, and learn from the Land which Tapestry Institute serves. Tapestry’s diverse community brings a wealth of expertise to programs that nurture and sustain the vital relationship between all living things and Indigenous Knowledge.
The Urban Indigenous Wellbeing Collective is committed to building an innovative research, training, and mentorship community that is centered on the wellbeing of urban Indigenous communities. We aim to foster meaningful collaborations between Elders, community members, Indigenous scholars, researchers, and allies. By bringing these groups together, we hope to address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by urban Indigenous populations.
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Master of Arts (MA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Indigenous Knowledges Theme faculty draw on Indigenous pedagogy and research methodologies to supervise graduate students when working with the Land, Elders and community. Graduate students undertake projects in diverse and inter-related areas such as language recovery/reclamation, redevelopment of Indigenous governance systems, health and wellbeing, ecological restoration, food sovereignty, housing and cultural revitalization.
The goal of the Indigenous Knowledges Theme is to revitalize traditional Indigenous Knowledge systems, inspire effective actions to meet contemporary challenges, and co-create new Indigenous Knowledge.
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
Get your UBC degree in Indigenous studies, which provides perspectives of Indigenous peoples from the Okanagan, Canada, and world communities, and introduces you to methodology and research applications.
At UBC Okanagan, you can complete a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a major or a minor in Indigenous studies.
In third or fourth year, you have the option of completing directed studies, where you will undertake a supervised investigation of an assigned topic in Indigenous studies, culminating in a major term paper.
Indigenous researchers are knowledge seekers who work to progress Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing in a modern and constantly evolving context. In Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods, Shawn describes a research paradigm shared by Indigenous scholars in Canada and Australia, and demonstrates how this paradigm can be put into practice. Relationships don’t just shape Indigenous reality, they are our reality. Indigenous researchers develop relationships with ideas in order to achieve enlightenment in the ceremony that is Indigenous research. Indigenous research is the ceremony of maintaining accountability to these relationships. For researchers to be accountable to all our relations, we must make careful choices in our selection of topics, methods of data collection, forms of analysis and finally in the way we present information.
In this collection edited by Shawn Wilson, Andrea Breen and Lindsay DuPre, leading scholars seek to disrupt Eurocentric research methods by introducing students, professors, administrators, and practitioners to frameworks of Indigenous research methods through a lens of reconciliation.
The foundation of this collection is rooted in each contributor’s unique conception of reconciliation, which extends beyond the parameters of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to include a broader, more global approach to reconciliation. More pointedly, contributors discuss how effective research is when it is demonstrated through acts of reconciliation.
Encouraging active, participatory approaches to research, this seminal text includes a range of examples, including a variety of creative forms, such as storytelling, conversations, letters, social media, and visual methodologies, that challenge linear ways of thinking and embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and seeing. This collection is a go-to resource for all disciplines with a research-focus, including Indigenous studies, sociology, social work, education, gender studies, and anthropology.
The Academic Family Gathering will create a knowledge exchange space for Indigenist researchers to consider the unique challenges and possibilities of knowledge mobilization in relation to Indigenous research. Beyond just talking about Indigenous research issues, the Academic Family Gathering will provide a space for enacting Indigenous concepts of relationality and relational accountability within a framework of Academic Kinship (AK).
This five-day gathering will take place in Opaskwayak Cree Nation (OCN) and will be hosted by the Wilson/Wassenas family (Shawn, Alex, Jamie, Stan and Peggy). Invited participants include other PhD holders from OCN and current or former mentees/graduate students of the hosts. After the Opening Welcome Feast, OCN community members and guests will have an opportunity to Visit to discuss how local knowledge has informed their relationships with Indigenous epistemology and their approaches to research and mentorship.
Coming August 2024
Associate Professor,
Indigenous Studies Program Coordinator,
Theme Coordinator, Indigenous Knowledges Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies
Landmark 4, 600-1628 Dickson Avenue Kelowna BC Canada V1Y 9X1
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