‘It’s a dream come true’: McMaster appoints new director of Indigenous research institute
McMaster University has named Tracy Bear, an Indigenous scholar and education advocate, as the new director of the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute (MIRI).
Bear, a nehiyaw iskwew (Cree woman) and member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan, will also hold joint academic positions in the faculties of social sciences and health sciences, according to an announcement posted on the school's website earlier this month.
Bear currently works at the University of Alberta, where she is the director of the Indigenous Women and Youth Resilience Project, the academic lead on the Indigenous Canada course, and an assistant professor of native studies and women's and gender studies.
According to McMaster, Bear is an accomplished" academic, having made significant contributions'' to Indigenous education across Canada since finishing her PhD in 2016.
Her research focuses include social justice, prison abolition, contemporary Indigenous art and Indigenous literature. Bear will start at McMaster on July 1.
The Spectator recently spoke with Bear about her appointment at the university. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: What was your biggest accomplishment at University of Alberta?
A: Probably my biggest feeling of accomplishment was when we had repatriated and reburied 29 individuals - most were children - from the Sharphead band. We worked with 15 different Indigenous and Metis communities in and around Edmonton to repatriate these bones that the anthropology department held in the U of A basement for decades. It was difficult, it was frustrating, people were angry. And at the end of it all, when we finally buried them - our ancestors - back, there were no accolades. But, to be able to see the looks on community members' faces, knowing that we had finally put these people to rest - that was the highlight.
Q: What are some of your early goals for the McMaster Indigenous Research Institute?
A: One of things I want to do is create a pipeline from prison to post-secondary for Indigenous folks. I currently work with the Edmonton Institution for Women and we bring post-secondary classes there. So, building a Walls to Bridges program in Hamilton. Also, building upon the success of the Indigenous Canada course. The course has 13 different modules, they've very general and very basic. We'd like to be more detailed, for example, by creating a module for the Haudenosaunee by working with that community to see what their political history was as well as their political systems, justice systems, language and culture. This is of course all with clear, open consultation with the communities surrounding McMaster - I would not claim to tell them what they need or what they want from a Cree perspective coming into their territory. I'm from Treaty 6 - I'm coming there as a guest.
Q: What are you looking forward to at McMaster?
A: I'd have to say new challenges. It's a new opportunity to expand. Being a director of the institute now allows me the freedom and movement to be able to consult and look at the future. To be at a university like McMaster that is on this upward trend of acknowledging Black lives matter, Indigenous lives matter and that is reflected in the policies and their hiring practices - I'm really looking forward to that sort of mentality. McMaster is the university for me to be at now. I'm super happy where I am, but there is a ceiling here for me - and I think McMaster has allowed me to punch through that ceiling. If I can have accomplishments like Indigenous Canada and Walls to Bridges with that ceiling, I can't imagine what I can accomplish without it.
Q: What mark do you hope to make at McMaster?
A: At the end of five years - the director position is a five-year term - I want the people that hired me at McMaster to say I can't believe how lucky we got. I can't believe what we have accomplished with Tracy as the director," and I want to see what I can accomplish in those five years. It's such a fertile ground. It's like looking at an empty garden bed that is full of that black soil and you can just feel it being so ready and waiting for you to plant something. I think there is a space for me to grow something of my own and really put a mark on it. I want people to say and recognize in me that I am a compassionate researcher and that my connection with communities is of a very high priority. I'm really excited about this opportunity. McMaster is a prestigious, research intensive university and to be the director of the Indigenous research institute ... it's a dream come true.
Fallon Hewitt is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: fhewitt@thespec.com