She:kon (Hello, Bonjour)! 

 

Thank you for joining me on my journey. I'm a mom, museum professional and PhD Candidate at the University of Waterloo. I am Mohawk from Akwesasne (on my dad's side) and Euro-Canadian (on my mom's side). I grew up off reserve in the border city of Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. 

 

You can find my linked in profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-george-06673115/

 

And my university bio here: https://uwaterloo.ca/tri-university-history-graduate-program/our-people/phd-students

 

Annnnnnd last but not least a bit more on who I am and what I do: 

 

From an Indigenous research perspective and more broadly in post-modern research with its attention to multi-vocal perspectives, power structures and inherent bias, positioning oneself in relation to our work allows for a discussion of the ways in which we come to know, believe, or approach topics from a unique lens or through a specific ontology.[1] I come to this research from a place of shifting and complex identity. I am at once both Haudenosaunee (Six Nations / Iroquois / People Who Build a Long House), Kanienkehaka (Mohawk / People of the Flint), and also not. Following the matriarchal system that is part of Haudenosaunee identity I have no clan, as my mother was white. I grew up with my maternal grandmother who encouraged me to hide my father’s family’s past and my identity. I had no access to my culture or language in my childhood and the deeply beautiful ways of knowing that were expressed through our teachings were not part of my life.  It wasn’t until I attended university that I began to learn and re-acquire my history and culture. Then, and now to a lesser extent, identity politics often made me uncomfortable with my place in gaining Indigenous knowledge and being in Indigenous spaces. This uncertainty brought me to think about belonging, knowledge, empowerment, and the role of community-led cultural centers in creating welcoming spaces for people like me. Having spent the last seven years working in community contexts, mostly at Six Nations of the Grand River,  I have had the privilege to personally witness the impacts of the restorative and healing power of knowing your culture and language for myself and those around me. I come to this work with a belief that knowing the power and beauty of our cultures and our nations is one of the ways we can work towards healing colonial trauma and restoring our Good Mind.

 

 

 

[1] Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 2nd ed. (New York: Zed Books, 2012); Shawn Wilson, Research Is Ceremony, Indigenous Research Methods (Nova Scotia: Fernwood Press, 2008); Susan Dion, Braiding Histories, Learning from Aboriginal Peoples’ Experiences and Perspectives (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009); and Darren Thomas, “Ogwehoweneha: A Hodinohso:nih Research Methodology” (MA thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2012).