Dr. Kathy Absolon, Principal Investigator

I am the Principal Investigator on the Decolonizing Journeys project. I am Anishinaabe kwe from Flying Post First Nation. My academic journey has been a pathway of unlearning, healing, re-learning and finding who I am as an Indigenous woman and what my place is in the academy. My Anishinaabe name is Minogiizhigo kwe which translates to mean Shining Day Woman, the one who brings goodness and beauty to the day.

In 2008, I received my PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. "Kaandossiwn, this is how we come to know: Indigenous research methodologies in the academy" was my dissertation title with a focus on Indigenous research. Since then I have been teaching Indigenous re-search methodologies and asserting Indigenous ways of coming into knowledge. The Decolonizing Journeys project is in partnerships with a digital story lab and educators who have completed the Decolonizing education certificate, including myself. Education, for me, has been a process of building dual knowledge bundles: one as an Anishinaabe kwe and my teachings and the other is a critical knowledge bundle fuelled by my mainstream education. I carry dual knowledge bundles that are informed by the land, spirit, decolonizing, indigenizing and anti-colonialism.

In 2007 I came to the Indigenous Field of Study in the Faculty of Social Work (now Indigenous Field of Study) at Laurier with a blending of teaching, practice, and community work. Since I have been at Laurier, I have taught in the Indigenous Field of Study Indigenous re-search, wholistic healing practices, culture camp, kinship and community, and Traditional Indigenous knowledge in wholistic practices. I have provided leadership to our Program during much of my tenure. In my role as Director of the Centre for Indigegogy, we generating decolonial, Indigenous centred and wholistic training for ongoing professional training for educators and practitioners across an array of settings.