What is your first U of A memory?
Before I was ever a student at the library, I came to dance competitions that were held at Meyer Horowitz, and then as an undergraduate, I used to go to that lobby to catch a nap between classes.
What’s something your coworkers don’t know about you?
Technically, my unit is science and engineering librarians: I’d have to admit that my science credits for my undergraduate degree were symbolic logic, earth and atmospheric science, and dinosaurs and mass extinctions. Embarrassing! I only took fun stuff.
What’s your favourite distraction?
White supremacy and colonialism. Oh, you said favourite? Watching the game show Game Changer.
If you were enrolling in one course, program or degree right now, what would it be?
I teach as an academic teaching staff (ATS) for the Library and Information Studies program, and I’d like to take some of those courses we offer! But honestly, I would take NS 152: Introduction to Cree language, again and again and again. I had grown up hearing and speaking Cree, but taking NS 152 was the first time I learned how to write nêhiyawêwin, and it was a transformational experience.
You can invite anyone — alive or dead, real or fictional — to dinner. Who would it be?
My dad was raised by his grandmother, my chapan, Clara Loyer. She was this amazing woman, a maskihkîwiskwêw, a midwife who delivered a lot of the babies around Calahoo. She passed away before I was born, but I’d want to ask her about the ways she used the plants that grew around where I was bought up and just sit and visit with her.
If you could see any live performance tomorrow, what would it be?
I have a little bit of regret about not seeing Prince before he died. If you’ll allow it, ghost Prince.
What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
hkamêyimo, pêyâhtakowê and kisêwâtisi.
What’s one thing you can’t live without?
Big beaded earrings — I feel naked without them!
What three words describe your U of A experience?
Nostalgic, cozy and busy.
Do you have any upcoming projects or initiatives you are looking forward to at work?
I’m a co-director of the Prairie Indigenous Relationality Network, and we just received a $2.5 million SSHRC Partnership Grant. We’ll be bringing together work on Indigenous relationality that’s being done in many disciplines. It’s also a big achievement: All six co-directors are all Indigenous, and we try to use methodologies and assessment tools that are distinctly Indigenous.
