Conferences focus on Aboriginal issues

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People interested in Aboriginal issues will have two good reasons to visit Saskatoon in late May and early June, as the city plays host to two separate conferences focusing on Aboriginal issues.

The Indigenous People's program in the extension division of the University of Saskatchewan will be hosting the Honouring Indigenous Knowledge conference from May 28 to 30.

Presenters for the conference will come from across Canada, as well as from outside the country, with indigenous scholars from South Africa, South America, the U.S., New Zealand, Bangladesh and Central America scheduled to take part. The presenters include Aboriginal academic scholars, community people, Elders, practitioners, and Indigenous language experts.

Priscilla Settee is director of the Indigenous People's program, and conference co-ordinator.

"Being an academic at a university myself, and being a Cree woman, I am very interested to see how higher learning institutes can begin to change the knowledge base on campus to utilize, to consider, Indigenous knowledge," Settee said.

"Also, I'm interested in providing a forum where people can discuss and build a strategy around some of the more controversial topics, such as the issue of biotechnology, the issue of disappearance of biodiversity, the issue of patents and its impact on our knowledge base. And also, a lot of people are coming to discuss ways and means of integrating Indigenous knowledge respectfully into learning situations - higher learning institutes, schools.

"And then of course, we have a good chunk of time focused on the preservation and utilization of Indigenous languages, coming from all over the world - north, south, each and west . . . And lastly, the topic that I am most involved in, is the addressing of the issue of threats to Indigenous knowledge - environmental threats. And there we look at destruction of the biosphere. We look at the impact of biotechnology on knowledge. And we look at international trade agreements such as the TRIPPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), which is part of the issue of globalization. It sounds pretty academic, but it's really not," she said.

For more information on the Honoring Indigenous Knowledge conference, call Priscilla Settee at 966-5556, or e-mail her at Priscilla.Settee@usask.ca.

Following on the heels of the Honouring conference, the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College (SIFC) are hosting the annual conference of the Canadian Indigenous/Native Studies Association (CINSA) from May 31 to June 3.

Although both institutions are holding the event, most of the actual presentations will take place at SIFC.

Presenters from this year's conference will come from across Canada, as well as from the U.S. and New Zealand.

"We're branching out, certainly, and we would like to maintain the international ties and foster the international links, as well as strengthen the national links with other Native Studies departments," said Rob Innes, conference co-ordinator.

"But we are not just confined to Native studies departments. We're open to anybody who is interested in Native people and issues that affect Native people, and research that affects Native people."

This is the third annual CINSA conference, Innes explained. Although CINSA was formed in the 1980s, the organization went dormant in the early 1990s, then was revived in 1998. In 1999, a conference was added to the agenda of CINSA's annual meeting, and has been held each year since.

"From my point of view, I think our target group is students, the Indian studies and Native studies students at both institutions," Innes said. "This, I think, is an opportunity to see what can be done with a Native studies degree."

Keynote speakers for the CINSA conference are Ovide Mercredi, former AFN national chief, and political advisor to current National Chief Matthew Coon Come; Metis author, film maker and teacher Maria Campbell; and Donald Fixio, director of Indigenous Nations studies at the University of Kansas.

Sessions planned as part of the conference cover a wide range of topics, including teachers and Elders, tradition in contemporary times, oral histories, Aboriginal commerce, urban issues, Native studies as a discipline, Native literature, language maintenance, and history from a Native studies perspective.

This year's conference will also include an honoring banquet, recognizing the contributions of Stan Cuthand and Freda Ahenakew to Canadian Native studies.

For more information about the CINSA conference, visit the conference We site at http://www.cinsa.ca, or alternatively the mirror site at http://www.cinsa.nisa.com, or call Rob Innes at 966-2511.