New Nexen chair raised on land, holds PhD

For the second time since its creation in 2008, the Nexen Chair in Indigenous Leadership at The Banff Centre has been awarded to an Indigenous woman with a passion for advancing Indigenous learning. Dr. Lois Edge takes over from Dr. Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, whose work during her four-year term included ground-breaking research led by program director Brian Calliou.
 “Dr. Edge has a proven track record of community-based research, has done research for national Indigenous organizations, and is very enthusiastic to bring that experience to our Indigenous leadership applied research strategy,” said Calliou. “We are so pleased to have her as part of our team.”

Calling herself an “ordinary Indigenous woman,” Edge says she was surprised and pleased to learn of her appointment to the Nexen Chair.

“Dr. Wesley-Esquimaux and Brian Calliou demonstrate those Indigenous leadership qualities that we all aspire to,” she said. “Building on their research and bringing my interests and strengths in terms of Indigenous education and health are two goals that are intertwined. They go hand in hand. Indigenous women and Indigenous art forms are important to the work that’s being done, and I’m hoping I can contribute to that.”

How that contribution will take shape is defined in part by the role itself. Supported by a $1 million investment by Nexen, the Nexen chair “leads research and reporting on successes and wise practices among Indigenous communities, businesses and leaders,” according to the announcement released in June.

Edge holds a PhD in Educational Policy Studies, specializing in Indigenous Peoples Education from the University of Alberta, and has worked to further the cause of education for First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities through various roles with Alberta Education and Athabasca University.

But the soft-spoken scholar is quick to say that she grew up on the land, raised in Fort Smith and Hay River. Her heritage is a proud blend of Gwich’in Cree Metis: French Cree Métis on her mother’s side and Gwich’in English Scottish on her fathers.

Edge learned about traditional crafts by watching her grandmother stitch intricate beadwork into her moccasins and parkas. She was honoured to find out that a pair of those moccasins is now part of a collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford in the UK. She described the spiritual quality of a journey she made to visit the museum, and the sense of reconnection with her own history as she held the precious moccasins in her hands.

When Edge decided to seek a post-secondary education, she wanted to learn more about Indigenous people but found little curriculum available at the time.

“I was in the Cree course, which grounded me,” she said. “I turned to anthropology, a window into Indigenous people in North America.”

When she entered her doctoral studies at the University of Alberta, Edge was encouraged toward the Indigenous People’s education specialization with the department of Educational Policy. A new program at the time, it was developed by Drs. Stan and Peggy Wilson who believed in getting teachers out of the classroom to teach using the land and the resources of nature.

“Indigenous students could learn from Indigenous scholars and Elders about Indigenous ways of knowing, teaching and being. It was cutting edge at the time, one of the first in the nation,” she said.

As Edge steps into the Nexen Chair role, she hopes for time to think and reflect.

“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn, to be affiliated with the Indigenous Leadership program at the Banff Centre in terms of the quality of the workshops. They are of the highest calibre, as is their faculty. I’m hoping there will be opportunities for thinking, reflection and writing, and to engage with individuals and new forums or environments that I might not otherwise have.”