UManitoba scholar opens the President’s Speakers Series for the University’s Year of Indigenous Action

SACKVILLE, NB — Dr. Niigaanwewidam (Niigaan) Sinclair, head of the University of Manitoba’s Native Studies department will be the first speaker for Mount Allison’s President’s Speakers Series marking the University’s Year of Indigenous Action. Sinclair will present “Indigenous Immemorial: Our Worlds post #Canada150” on Monday, September 25 at 7 p.m. in Crabtree Auditorium.

Sinclair is Anishinaabe (St. Peter’s/Little Peguis) and a faculty member in the Native Studies Department at the University of Manitoba. He is a regular commentator on Indigenous issues and his written work can be found in the pages of The Exile Edition of Native Canadian Fiction and Drama, newspapers like The Guardian, and online with CBC Books: Canada Writes. Sinclair is the co-editor of the award-winning Manitowapow: Aboriginal Writings from the Land of Water (Highwater Press, 2011) and Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Michigan State University Press, 2013), and is the editorial director of The Debwe Series with Portage and Main Press.

Sinclair’s Mount Allison talk is co-sponsored as the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Lecture in Canadian Studies. The Davidson Lecture, organized by the University’s Centre for Canadian Studies, is held annually and brings a distinguished Canadianist to campus to speak on a matter of importance to Canada.

“We are delighted to welcome Niigaan to campus as this year’s Davidson lecturer and for the President’s Speakers Series during the Year of Indigenous Action,” says Dr. Christl Verduyn, English professor and Director of Mount Allison’s Centre for Canadian Studies. “He is a significant voice in Indigenous studies and literature and we look forward to hearing his thoughts during this important time in Canadian history.

Everyone is welcome to attend the event and there is no admission charge. For more information on Mount Allison’s President’s Speakers Series and the University’s Year of Indigenous Action please visit mta.ca/pss