Chapter 4: All Our Relations: Indigenous Women’s Holistically Embodied and Relational Leadership in Canadian Universities

In Indigenous research, locating oneself is a critical starting point that grounds knowledge-making as an embodied and relational process (Ritenburg et al., 2014). Waban Geesiz nintishnikasowin. Mushkego iskwew ininew entow. My name is Candace Brunette-Debassige. I am a Cree woman of the Mushkegowuk Nation and a member of the Petabeck First Nation in Treaty 9 Territory with Cree and French lineage. Today, I live on the lands of the Anishnawbek, Haudenosaunee, and Lenapewak peoples along the Deshkan Zibing (Antler River) in the Great Lakes region of Turtle Island.

Indigenous women’s leadership experiences are either silent or misinterpreted in dominant educational leadership discourses. This chapter explores the ongoing colonial, racial, and gendered tropes present in contemporary characterizations of Indigenous women administrators’ leadership and resistance work in Canadian universities in a post truth and reconciliation era. Drawing on an Indigenous storying methodology, I share firsthand testimonies of Indigenous women leaders working in Canadian universities to lead Indigenous decolonial transformation from within (TRC, 2015). I draw on Indigenous theoretical understandings of embodiment and relationality to build upon previous research and findings published in Tricky Grounds: Indigenous Women’s Experiences in Canadian Universities (Brunette-Debassige, 2023b) and assert that Indigenous women’s leadership work is both embodied and relationally tied to Indigenous ethics grounded in the teachings of all our relations.