The Okotoks Erratic or 'Big Rock'

Okotoks, AB (photo taken April 30, 2022)

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement is vital. I acknowledge MRU is situated on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot people and the people of the Treaty 7 region of southern Alberta, which includes Siksika, Piikani, Kainai, Tsuut’ina, and Iyarhe Nakoda. Calgary (Mohkinstsis) is also home to the Metis Nation. I acknowledge I am a visitor to this territory. Working on Blackfoot territory was one of the main reasons I wanted to be at MRU. I acknowledge all my relations for contributing to the path leading me here. I acknowledge the land, ceremony, community, Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot people), Niitsitapissini (Blackfoot ways of life), the Native Paradigm, and the Red Road for helping me find my way in life. 

Finding One’s Way Through

I am inspired by Tanya Talaga’s four guiding questions she highlighted in her 2018 CBC Massey lectures, All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward. Talaga credits Honorable Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, for bringing “the great questions of life” to her attention. 

Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here (What is my purpose)? Who am I?

She states, "All children, regardless of their racial or socio-economic backgrounds, need to know the answers to these questions. They need to know who their ancestors are, who their heroes and villains are; they need to know about their family's traditions and cultures and the community they are a part of. Our children must feel that they are loved, valued, and worthy members of society who belong in this world exactly as they are" (220).

Tanya Talaga presenting at Calgary Public Library 

for U of C's Indigenous Knowledge Public Lecture Series (Wed., Jan. 29, 2020)

Talaga is an advocate for education. In her lectures, she states, “the educators always lead us forward” (214). Forward, yes, but education is also cyclical and reciprocal. The work of Talaga and Sinclair offers guidance and encouragement for educators to lead in the classroom. However, forward momentum comes from many places; it is a collective endeavour. It involves the students, the course material, as well as the class environment. In all my courses, I hope the students will recognize the literature as well as their own writing as guides to help them find their way through, to find their own path forward. 

I acknowledge Talaga and Sinclair for their work, which has prompted me to reflect on their important questions as it relates to my own work at MRU and my areas of specialization. Thus, I have structured my extended faculty profile in a way not only to answer these four questions but also to acknowledge my relations and find a path forward. 

Who am I?

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Languages, and Cultures at Mount Royal University. My primary teaching and research areas are in Indigenous literatures. I am interested in Indigenous life stories and writing as they relate to wellness, one’s wellbeing, community, and ceremony. 

My other areas of specialization are in drama & theatre, literary studies, and academic writing & composition. Based on the insight gained from my studies, teaching, research, and lived experience (my own and my students’), these areas as well as community & ceremony are the ways to help find one’s way through. They contribute to one’s development, growth, and endurance as individuals trying to understand the human experience as diverse as it is. Literature validated my identity, and theatre gave me refuge. Both taught me inclusion and belonging. Both changed my life. They are powerful modes of artistic expression.

Critical thinking, reading, and writing are at the heart of all the courses I teach. I value these areas of specialization because they involve analyses of works of artistic expression in which emotions, ideas, and experiences are represented. As indicated in Lee Maracle’s Ravensong, “Where do you begin telling someone their world is not the only one.” Indeed, it is the writers who transport readers to different cultures, histories, and identities, reminding them that their world is not the only one.

Like literature and theatre, composition is a craft, one that comes with high standards, and it must be approached with that expectation. I place great emphasis on writing in academic and non-academic work. I strive to model for my learners the passion, the rigour, and the effort critical reading, writing, and thinking require. I acknowledge my training in English for helping me to control, structure, and organize my thoughts and words. I credit my study of Drama & Theatre for allowing me not only to embrace my creativity and inner voice but also to explore my gut reaction and instincts before crafting a critical & creative response.

For the study of Indigenous literature, I am interested in exploring the many approaches to take. ENGL 2253 (Indigenous Literature in Canada) is conceptualized as an Indigenous literary lodge where the various writers serve as guides to help the class find their way through. The course thesis of ENGL 3353 (North American Indigenous Literatures) is that studying Indigenous literature is a ceremony. The class considers how the work connects to spirit, ritual, and ceremony. How is it sacred? Why is such an approach recommended? As there are multiple ways to approach the literature so are there many ways to respond to the works. I recognize students learn in a variety of ways, and I incorporate creative assignments that have critical components in which they explain what they created. In some classes, instead of essays, there are response papers, and in other classes, papers are referred to as meditations. 

Being an educator is a humbling and rewarding profession. Recently, I had the honour of supervising a Blackfoot student from Siksika (Del Broad Scalplock) in a senior-level independent study English course. Together, we named it: Kii Pat Tah Pii Sinni (‘Your Life’ in Blackfoot): Indigenous Men’s Wellbeing & Life Writing.

Del Broad Scalplock (Siksika)

Kii Pat Tah Pii Sinni: Indigenous Men's Wellbeing & Life Writing (April 2022)

Where do I come from?

I was born and raised in the Okanagan Valley (Kelowna, BC). My mother is a Filipina (born in Batangas and immigrating to Canada in 1967), and my father is a French-Canadian born in Elie, Manitoba (in the Cartier municipality). My parents met in Vancouver and married in the summer of ’69. A short time later, they moved to Kelowna because of my father’s employment at Gorman Bros. Lumber in Westbank (West Kelowna). I witnessed my parents’ hard work ethic. However, I would have to say that my own drive in my post-secondary studies came from within. In hindsight, I recognize my determination to learn as being fueled by my efforts to find my way – to discover my identity, who I was, especially as a gay man. I sought out like-minded people and community. I believe university – the Arts specifically – can be the place for a person to figure out who one is, to find one’s voice and purpose – to know where one is going. I was able to do just that. My hope is for others to achieve something similar.

Poster of my first full-length play The Orchard Drive

written under the mentorship of Canadian playwright Judith Thompson 

and produced in both in Edmonton & Kelowna (July 2005)

(Below) A review when the play was performed as a staged reading (June 2002)

In total, it took me 16 years (1993 – 2009) to earn all three of my degrees – all of them in both English and Drama. And after attaining my PhD, it took me just as long to re-think and re-consider my formal education. This is where I acknowledge Indigenous ways of knowing and the Blackfoot community specifically. I experienced a different type of education by being involved in community and ceremony, being out on the land, being with the elders, hearing the stories in addition to reading them. I felt the need to be re-programmed, especially after enduring such an intensive time of my life. Before accepting my position at MRU, I lived and worked in Lethbridge, AB, for 11 years (2011-2022). In southern Alberta, I was able to be close to my familial relations, my ceremonial family, mostly from Kainai First Nations (the Blood Reserve). I found my chosen family and a family that chose me. This is where I am coming from.

Where am I going?

As a Non-Native, I am often asked how I became so passionate about Indigenous ways of knowing. It is a question deserving of a lengthy response. However, if one wants a short answer, I tell them it has to do with education and experience relating to Indigenous literature and performance. If those asking me this question enrolled in an Indigenous literature course or took an Indigenous theatre class, I believe they would have a better understanding of where I am coming from and where I am going, as well as who I am and why I am here -- those four great questions raised earlier.

It is not only through the literature and the performing arts but also through the community and the ceremonies where I developed in ways I did not in my formal education. Community and ceremony were the places where my ways of seeing truly changed. I wish all my students, Native and Non-Native, can experience the things I have been fortunate to experience in the community and in ceremony. Those two have kept me going forward.

Where is a good place to start the process of decolonizing and indigenizing? From lived experience (my own and my students’), I would suggest starting with an active and engaged investment in the literature and the performing arts, the land, the community, and the ceremony. For some, like it was for me, doing so will develop an awareness of another way of seeing and living; for others, it will strengthen and reaffirm one’s existing efforts and advocacy to decolonize and indigenize. Indigenous literature is not just for Indigenous readers.

According to Daniel Heath Justice, Indigenous literatures matter because they teach us how to be human, how to behave as good relatives, how to become good ancestors, and how to live together. Community and ceremony also provide these lessons. We are living at a time where these four teachings are needed more than ever. We all must start somewhere, especially those who are sincerely committed to contributing to reconciliation. Indigenous literature can be that starting place.

I am grateful for the Indigenous literature and the Indigenous writers brought to my attention in my formal education. For me, the seeds began to be planted in 1995, at 20 years old. That is the time I moved from my hometown of Kelowna to the big city of Vancouver, to study at Capilano College (now University). There, I met and studied under my mentor Reid Gilbert who introduced me to Indigenous literature as well as gay literature for the first time, and I was never the same because of it. I realized how important the roles of literature and theatre played in understanding one’s identity, history, and place in the world, especially when coming from places of marginality. Literature and performance have immense power. My hope is that more people can make this discovery – their path forward can only become stronger. 

Land, Community, Ceremony, Native Paradigm, Red Road, A Way of Life (Niitsitapiiysinni)

I am proud to have made traditional Blackfoot territory my home for the last 20 years. I moved to Edmonton in 2002 to begin my PhD in English and Drama. Soon after completing my PhD in literature and theatre in 2009, I committed to walking the Red Road, a traditional Indigenous way of living, abstaining from alcohol and drugs, and following the piercing sundance (Aa' Wah Kaa' nitaa – those who pierce. Niisto Ta Wah Kaa nikoo). I take spiritual direction from my teacher, elder, and sundance leader Joe Eagle Tail Feathers (Iitsooahp’potah - Attacks in the Water) as well as from my elder and holy brother Calvin Williams (Mahtsaohhtaan - Pretty Shield). I am a co-founding member of Sundance Coulee Society, a registered Alberta society under the spiritual direction of Joe Eagle Tail Feathers. We are a Blackfoot (Kainai) collective promoting spirituality, healing, wellness, and community engagement. We work throughout the year for our annual ceremony and celebration: a piercing sundance. It is a time of renewal. Other Blackfoot sundance leaders with whom I have danced are Keith Chiefmoon (Kainai), Joe Kipp (Browning, MT), and Tom Crawford (Heart Butte, MT). 

The Red Road is a beautiful way of life, and I am indebted to Blackfoot Ways of Knowing and Indigenous ceremony for changing my life. I am grateful to the work of Leroy Little Bear and Amethyst First Rider for presenting the Native Paradigm in an accessible way. The tenets of relationships, land, flux, animate, and especially renewal all resonated with me. Indigenous ways of knowing can help one to see things differently in a way that makes sense if one truly takes note of the teachings and applies them to their life. The application of the teachings to one’s life is the most important. So many works of Indigenous literature are community driven. They are about walking and (re)connecting to this path, the sacred circle, a traditional worldview. This is why I highly regard the study of the literature as ceremonial and sacred. Like literature and performance, there is immense power to be found in the stories, in the people, and in the places. Each story is animate; there is a spirit and energy to each text, just waiting to offer its teaching and lessons meant for that person to learn. 

Aatsimoyikaan (Prayer) is a Blackfoot value. It is common for prayer to open any Indigenous gathering, and that is the way I have opened my Indigenous literature courses. I share my prayer with my students: that they will find the meaning, direction, and guidance they were meant to find. I pray the works, the stories, can help them on their life path. I pray they can see the course as being more than a course. I pray they will see Indigenous stories, culture, and experiences in a new way – and I pray they can be transformed in their own way as they were meant to be. 

...as they were meant to be. 

As Yvonne Johnson (Cree | Medicine Bear Woman) would say, "It's a musta-be."

I am honoured to have been a part of the collective creation of this play 

inspired by the life experiences of Yvonne Johnson (first produced in June 2010)

Indigenous Storytelling – Personal & Collaborative Approaches

Indigenous storytelling (in the non-literary, non-written form) is inherently theatrical and performative in its use of physical & vocal expression, movement, song, and dance to impart its messages. As previously noted, all three of my degrees involved the study of theatre in addition to literature. Indigenous performance also changed my life. How can one ever be the same after playing one of the most well-known roles in Indigenous theatre in Canada from one of the most popular Indigenous plays out there? One of my proudest achievements occurred in 2005 when I performed my dream role of Nanabush, the trickster, in the Edmonton Premiere of Tomson Highway’s famous play, The Rez Sisters. Seven years prior to this production, in my undergraduate work, I pursued a directed reading course on the play because I was so fascinated by it. I would not be where I am today if that play - and playing that role - did not come into my life. The experience was a testament to theatre’s power and magic. I am convinced that the trickster character is still working their magic on me, taking me on an incredible journey. When I lecture on Tomson Highway or on Indigenous theatre, it becomes obvious how life-changing Indigenous theatre can be. 

The Edmonton Premiere of Tomson Highway's play, The Rez Sisters 

(Walterdale Playhouse, Oct. 2005)

Like the shape-shifting nature of the trickster, and like the tenet of flux in the Native paradigm, Indigenous storytelling takes shape in a variety of ways. Like theatre, Indigenous writing can result from collaboration and multiple voices (Native & Non-Native). Since 2018, I have worked with Alberta Justice & Solicitor General as a Gladue Report Writer. To date, I have written 26 reports (the average report being about 30 pages single spaced). The Gladue Report is a form of Indigenous life writing. It also captures the function and purpose of Indigenous literature in its recognition and representation of Indigenous cultures, experiences, histories, and identities while fostering awareness, understanding, compassion, and reconciliation. Gladue Report writers work to offer a summarized version of an Indigenous offender’s life story to the court. The report highlights their personal circumstances, such as familial relations, health, education, employment, and intergenerational trauma. The Gladue writer works with not only the accused but their close contacts to address their experience – one that has been impacted by colonization and residential schools. The hope is that the report will work to inform a judge of both the offender’s history and the recommended ways for rehabilitation. Together, we work to find a path forward. 

Why am I here? What is my purpose?

MRU’s motto ‘You Belong Here’ resonates with me. A sense of belonging and community is vital when seeking to find one’s purpose – to know where one is going. I feel that acceptance, support, and respect at MRU, and I hope you do too. 

If you are interested in anything I have shared here, please let me know. If I am unable to answer your inquiry, I will work to put you in contact with someone who may. 

On my 36th birthday, I was given the Blackfoot name, Mistaki Omahka. The direct Blackfoot translation is ‘Mountain Traveller.' It has also been translated to 'Mountain Runner,’ ‘Runner of the Woods,’ or ‘Coureur du Bois.’ I am proud of that name because of its recognition of my home landscape, my constant travels to and from BC, my French ancestry, the independent nature of the Coureur du Bois, and the working relations they had with Indigenous peoples. 

Sinclair and Talaga’s questions work to ensure I will not lose sight of who I am, where I came from, where I would like to go, especially as an educator, and my purpose for being here at MRU. This relationship with time – the past (where do I come from), the present (why am I here), and the future (where am I going) – is always taken into consideration in my classes as well as in my Gladue work. They are places where one can begin to understand someone’s identity: who the person is, who the character is, who the reader/viewer is (who am I).

I look forward to meeting, working, learning, and growing with you. 

Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going? Why are you here? What is your purpose?

All my relations.

Last updated 2022-08-31