Olive Dickason

This event honors the Métis Elder, historian, and professor Dr. Olive Patricia Dickason (1920-2011). An award-winning journalist who raised three daughters as a single mother, Olive Dickason began graduate studies at the age of fifty. She was one of the first scholars to write a doctoral thesis on the histories of Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada and she subsequently published many groundbreaking studies in this field.

Dr. Dickason joined the University of Alberta’s Department of History in 1976. Just eight years later, she was instructed to retire because of the university’s policy of mandatory retirement at age 65. Dr. Dickason challenged this age-based discrimination in the courts and continued her work as a University of Alberta professor until the Supreme Court of Canada narrowly ruled against her in 1992.

Elder Olive Dickason earned ten honorary degrees, earned a National Aboriginal Lifetime Achievement Award and was named to the Order of Canada in 1996. She mentored, educated and inspired countless students, scholars, and citizens. Her memory and work live on.