How Indigenous conceptions of morality may be resident in educational forums

The Journey Toward Moral Truth: Reconciliatory Perspectives with special guest Frank Deer is the second event of this semester’s Indigenous Knowledge Lecture Series on Feb. 22.

One of the central aspects of belief systems that manifest in and across cultures is that of morality. A ubiquitous feature of humanity’s search for truth, meaning, and fecund social connections, morality is often strongly associated with religious and/or spiritual orientations. As many Indigenous Peoples venture to affirm and embrace their traditional identities, their focus upon traditional systems of belief and morality have become more focused. In recent years, public schools have begun to reflect such systems of belief and morality in educational programming.

This talk will be an effort to discuss how Indigenous conceptions of morality may be resident in educational forums and in broader communal consciousness.

About the speaker

Frank Deer is a professor, Canada Research Chair, and associate dean in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba, and also serves as college president of the Royal Society of Canada. Deer is Kanienkeha’ka from Kahnawake, a community that lies just south of Tiotia’ke in the eastern region of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 

Event details

Feb. 22, 2023
12 – 1:30 p.m. MT - Online
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Past event – Indigenous Urban Futurity: A Lens for Reconciliation

The first event of the series took place Jan. 18 and featured practising architect and professor Wanda Dalla Costa, a Saddle Lake Cree Nation member. This talk examined the concept of Indigenous futurity, a term coined by Dr. Grace Dillion to describe past-future visions where Indigenous Peoples use creative thinking to construct alternative narratives about their futures. 

Watch recording

Upcoming event – April 4: Melanie Goodchild

The third and final event of the series on April 4, presented in partnership with the Office of Sustainability’s Climate Conversations Speaker Series, will feature scholar Melanie Goodchild who is a moose clan Anishinaabekwe (Ojibway woman) from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Ketegaunseebee First Nations in northern Ontario. This talk will describe how to heal self and systems through a dibaajimowin (story) about her apprenticeship with complexity anchored in the principle of gidinawendimin (we are all related).

April 4, 2023
12 – 1:30 p.m. MT - Online
Register