Please join the Indigenous Faculty CouncilÌý and Interdisicplinary Studies at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ for the annual Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout Lecture. The 2025/2026 MDS Lecture features the dynamic Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw, author and scholar,Ìý Dr. Joshua Whitehead.Ìý Have some light refreshments and enjoy Dr.Whitehead’s thoughts on “Queering the Stone: Writing Apocalypse,”Ìý on Thursday April 16, 7 pm in Teraanga Commons Room 270-272

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Speaker

Joshua Whitehead (he/him) is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyawÌýmember of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies (Treaty 7).

He is the author of (Talonbooks 2017) which was shortlisted for the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. He is also the author of (Arsenal Pulp Press 2018) which was long listed for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction, the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and Canada Reads 2021.

Whitehead is the editor of , which won the Lambda Award in 2021.

Whitehead’s latest book Ìýwas published in 2022 with Knopf Canada, exploring the intersections of Indigeneity, queerness, and, most prominently, mental health through a nêhiyaw lens. The book was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Award for Nonfiction.

You can also find his work published widely in such venues as Prairie Fire, CV2, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Fiddlehead, Grain, CNQ, Write,Ìýand Red RisingÌýMagazine.

New date is April 30th, 2026

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Parking Information: P7

How to Get to Teraanga Commons – Campus Map

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The inaugural lecture was given by Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout herself in 2019. Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout is a nehiyaw/Cree person from Kehewin First Nation in Alberta. From 1989-1993, Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout was the founding Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education (CACE) and from 1993-2001 was the first Indigenous professor within the School of Canadian Studies (formerly named the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies) at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. Dion Stout left an indelible mark on Indigenous communities, the ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ community, and Canadian society more generally.

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the Film
ABU: Father is a deeply personal exploration of identity, family, faith, and belonging. Through intimate storytelling, filmmaker Arshad Khan reflects on the complex relationship with his devout Muslim father while navigating questions of culture, sexuality, migration, and acceptance.

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Film maker
Arshad Khan is a multiple-award-winning Pakistani Canadian filmmaker, and a graduate of Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. His feature documentary Abu had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2017 and received 17 international awards. He has been to over 90 film festivals and has made several short films including shorts Threadbare (2008), Brownie (2011), Doggoned (2012), Zen (2012) and Valery’s Suitcase (2016).

Come join us for an evening of reflection, dialogue, and discovery — as we explore what it means to find freedom and compassion within the intersections of identity and tradition.

Light refreshment provided.

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the Lecture
This lecture weaves together stories of my family members to explore how Lokono maintained connections to their ancestral homelands and built new kinship networks away from their ancestral lands in post- independence Guyana. In the latter part of the 20th century increased migration transformed Indigenous communities and Indigenous women played a key role in supporting their communities. I begin with my mother’s story and end with mine. In between are stories of family members whose lives were shaped by the Amerindian Acts and government development policies.

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the Speaker
Shenella (she/her) is a Lokono and Afro-Guyanese scholar. She is a lecturer in the Indigenous Studies Program at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University where she teaches courses on Indigenous-Settler Encounters, Indigenous Relationalities, Kinships and Knowledges, and Indigenous Sovereignties. Her current research explores intersections between histories of Indigeneity and Blackness through discussion of the complex relations between Indigenous peoples, Afro- Guyanese, and Indo-Guyanese; Afro-Indigeneity; and the African diaspora-centered nationalism that emerged in the early decades of Guyana’s independence. Shenella is also a member of the Great Lakes Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures and has worked with Lokono, Kalina, and Garifuna communities and organizations in the Caribbean. Her work with Indigenous communities and organizations has helped to shape her approach to building global Indigenous solidarities through learning, teaching, and activism.

ÌýProfessor Emeritus from the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, will visit ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ to deliver a talk entitled, “The work of art in postcolonial imagination: Notes towards globalizing curriculum and aesthetics.” Dr. McCarthy’s talk will explore the significance of postcolonial art for thinking about the challenges of modern life and the school curriculum. His lecture raises and discusses the following question: what theoretical and practical purchase might an ethnographic evaluation of postcolonial art yield? To advance this line of inquiry, Dr. McCarthy will examine postcolonial exemplars: novelists, poets, painters, playwrights, and musicians from the Global South and the periphery of the metropole. His talk will address anti-Blackness, visual cultures, and public pedagogy.

Wolf Babe in conversation with Dr. Carmen Robertson ( Canada Research Chair in North American Indigenous Visual and Material Culture)

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´
Join Wolf Babe, an Anishinaabe/Nehiyaw/Haudenosaunee artist collective of four powerful individuals as they discuss how their art practice furthers the possibilities of education in and outside of Institutions. Dr. Carmen Robertson (Scots-Lakota), Canada Research Chair in North American Indigenous Visual and Material Culture will moderate this discussion.

Light refreshments after the lecture | Open to all.

Download Poster (PDF)

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The inaugural lecture was given by Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout herself in 2019. Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout is a nehiyaw/Cree person from Kehewin First Nation in Alberta. From 1989-1993, Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout was the founding Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education (CACE) and from 1993-2001 was the first Indigenous professor within the School of Canadian Studies (now named the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies) at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. Dion Stout has left an indelible mark on Indigenous communities, the ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ community, and Canadian society more generally.

Abstract

Accompanying the rapidly deteriorating conflict and humanitarian situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo over the past few weeks have been the essentialized Western media images that deploy overly simplistic interpretive framework for understanding this unfolding emergency. This conversation aims to critically examine and situate this emergent reality within the contradictions embedded in the current national, regional and global order, and to provide a platform for alternative imaginations and collective political action.

Come ready with your questions and suggestions on what is needed to foster peace and security in eastern Congo.

Moderator:
Paul Mkandawire (Professor, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University)

Networking opportunity and light refreshments provided.

Attendance is FREE, Registration encouraged.

Singing Back the Buffalo is a timely movie that presents multiple communities’ commitment in the rematriation of buffalo herds to North America.

A post-screening conversation will be moderated by ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Professor and award-winning CBC broadcaster Duncan McCue.

Refreshment provided.

Room 4207, 4th floor, Maanjiwe Nendamowin building, UTM
1535 Outer Circle Mississauga, ON L5L 3E2

Mayurika Chakravorty will draw upon children’s fantasies from Bengal during the colonial period to speak about anti-colonial nationalism and the role of children’s literature, especially fantasy literature, against the backdrop of the subcontinent’s tumultuous sociopolitical landscape at the time. Particular focus will be on the genre’s propensity for subversion of authority, both political/colonial as well as cultural/literary.

Mayurika Chakravorty is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies (Childhood and Youth Studies program), ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University, Canada. Her research focuses on fantasy and speculative fiction; children’s literature; and the representation of children and youth in literature and media. Dr. Chakravorty holds a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK and was a Felix doctoral scholar. Her first book, based on her Ph.D. research on fantasy and speculative literature in colonial India, is forthcoming in 2024.

Title: Life after residential school

The inaugural lecture was given by Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout herself in 2019. Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout is a nehiyaw/Cree person from Kehewin First Nation in Alberta. From 1989-1993, Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout was the founding Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Culture and Education (CACE) and from 1993-2001 was the first Indigenous professor within the School of Canadian Studies (now named the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies) at ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University. Dion Stout has left an indelible mark on Indigenous communities, the ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ community, and Canadian society more generally.

This year’s Annual Madeleine KÄ“tÄ“skwew Dion Stout Lecture will be given by Louise Bernice Halfe, Canada’s ninth Parliamentary Poet Laureate.

Louise B. Halfe.
David Stobbe / StobbePhoto.ca

ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ the Speaker
Louise Bernice Halfe – Sky Dancer was raised on Saddle Lake Reserve and attended Blue Quills Residential School. Louise is married, has two adult children and three grandsons. She graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Regina. She also completed two years of Addictions Counselor Training at St. Albert’s Nechi Institute where she also facilitated the program. She served as Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate for two years and has traveled extensively for her poetics and to present at numerous conferences. Her books include, Bear Bones and Feathers, Blue Marrow, The Crooked Good, Burning In This Midnight Dream, Sohkeyihta, and awasis-kinky and dishevelled. She has received numerous accolades and awards including honorary doctorates from Wilfred Laurier University, the University of Saskatchewan, and Mount Royal University. She currently serves as the national Parliamentary Library Poet Laureate. Louise also serves as an elder or knowledge keeper at the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Virtual Hospice, Opik, and others. She actively participates in cultural and ceremonial activities relevant to her Plains Cree culture.

The lecture will be a verbal presentation after which the topic will be presented in poetic form which will address intergenerational trauma.

Reception with light refreshments after the lecture | Open to all.

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