Tricky Grounds

“Tricky Grounds: Indigenous Women’s Experiences in Canadian University Administration”
by Candace Brunette-Debassige
Published by University of Regina Press
Review by Sally Meadows
$34.95 ISBN 9780889779778

Tricky Grounds is a passionate reflection by author Candace Brunette-Debassige as she documents “the experiences and challenges that Indigenous women administrators face in enacting Indigenizing policies in Canadian universities” (p. 10) with an eye towards “more transformative, decolonial approaches to Indigenous leadership and policy practices” (p. 10).

The book begins with a personalized account of what led to Brunette-Debassige’s own research–this is her published PhD dissertation–followed by a critical (i.e. important) review of historical policies, institutional approaches, university participation, teaching agendas, and research agendas as they pertain to Indigenous people from the 1800s to present. Highlighted is the consistently and devastatingly undermined, marginalized, suppressed, and even silenced, non-European (particularly for the context of this book, Indigenous) ways of knowing of traditional Euro-Western universities. I was shocked to read, for example, that the Indian Act of 1876 forced First Nation men (and later, women) who wanted to attend university to “surrender their Treaty rights and terminate their Indigenous legal status and…reserve lands” (p. 33-34), a legality that remained in place until 1951. I champion this book as an invaluable resource for university faculty, administration, staff, and students–and the public at large–to help gain understanding about the cost of colonialism and the need for structural change when it comes to effective and culturally respected higher education for Indigenous people.

Through her self-proclaimed Indigenous feminist lens, Brunette-Debassige weaves a comprehensive and relevant literature review into her commentary on topics such as Indigenization of academic institutions, Indigenous representation and experience, reconciliation for organizational change, racial/colonial/gendered stereotypes, Indigenous educational sovereignty, resistance for deeper transformational change, the emotional toll reconciliation implementation has on Indigenous administrators, and many more. Her cultural approach to her research was fascinating, particularly how she created a Cree floral research design that summarizes her research’s “epistemological and theoretical underpinnings” (p. 101). Throughout she employs an “Indigenous methodological storying (i.e. narrative) approach” (p. 106) to her research, which I found interesting as someone with a more traditional science background.

The heart of Brunette-Debassige’s book is her gathering and interpretation of stories, identification of common tribulations, affirmation of recurring dilemmas, and dramatization of experiences–the author is also a playwright–of her Indigenous female administrative colleagues. In her epilogue, she invites readers to reflect for themselves what the stories in this book have meant to them. As for me, it has given me a deeper appreciation for the senior Indigenous female university administrators I regularly met with during my former career as an outreach educator to northern/Indigenous communities. I hope that they, along with the women who contributed to the success of this publication, know that they were and are seen and heard.

Brunette-Debassige is Mushkego Cree of Petabeck First Nation in Treaty 9 with mixed Cree and French lineage. She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education Western University in Ontario.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM.