Many habitual readers of this newsletter will recognize the name Dr. Frances Widdowson and her valiant efforts to overturn her dismissal as a tenured professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University (MRU).
To those unfamiliar with her Star Chamber firing, the specious grounds used being her fearless questioning of contemporary Indigenous policy in Canada, an effort seen by MRU administrative brass and political activists as an assault on the University’s indigenization mission.
In particular, blindly accepting every feature of this mission was seen as far outweighing traditional academic freedom as formally articulated at MRU, not to mention the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
“Mount Royal University is situated in an ancient and storied place within the [sic] hereditary lands of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Îyârhe Nakoda, Tsuut'ina and Métis Nations. It is a land steeped in ceremony and history that, until recently, was used and occupied exclusively by peoples indigenous to this place.
Our goal is to indigenize Mount Royal University, to respect and embrace Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing, to integrate Indigenous teachings and practices, to support Indigenous learners, and to honour Indigenous experiences and identities.”
Setting aside the fact that MRU is actually situated on lands ceded to the Crown by Treaty 7 in 1877, part of the university’s indigenization mandate is the use of lower case letters for any words other than “Indigenous:”
“lower case as Indigenous 'eventing' support resistance
this is a beginning effort at describing the use of lower case on the website of the office of indigenization and decolonization.
Indigenous people have been actively engaged in a multidimensional struggle for equality, since time immemorial. we strive for historical-cultural recognition and acknowledgment of colonial oppression that persistently devalues the diversity of our unique cultural heritages.
these sites of struggle are generally found at blockades, where demonstrations against racism occur, where racialization and cultural domination, and discrimination leave the mark of imbalance and abuses of power. sometimes these sites generate media interest but interest is generally fickle.
the explicit demonstration and practice of aboriginal culture in everyday life or at places of resistance is called by academics 'eventing.'
the goal of equity, diversity and inclusion of all people is synonymous with the interests of Indigenous people. we support and expand the goal of equality and inclusion to all forms of life and all people. we join leaders like e. e. cummings, bell hooks, and peter kulchyski, who reject the symbols of hierarchy wherever they are found and do not use capital letters except to acknowledge the Indigenous struggle for recognition.
we resist acknowledging the power structures that oppress and join the movement that does not. the office of indigenization and decolonization supports acts that focus on inclusion and support the right of all people to positive inclusion and change.”
Dr. Widdowson’s refusal to abide by these and other anti-intellectual, even childishly silly policies — which one of her critics laughably claimed reflected a troubling disrespect for native issues — was seen as “creating a hostile work environment,” grounds seen as sufficient to fire her.
At present, this de-capitalization policy applies only to the “office of Indigenization and decolonization” but is sure to become, except for the sacred “I”-word, an MRU-wide policy. Just as certain, this will be followed by the recognition that all communication at this indigenized university (with a rock bottom Canadian and international standing) is hypocritically written in the forcibly-imposed colonial English language — surely “a symbol of hierarchy” if there ever was one — a hypocrisy that could only be addressed by all courses being taught in a plethora of dead or dying aboriginal languages, ironically carefully recorded and studied by generations of “white settler” missionaries, anthropologists, and linguists.
Only thinkers like George Orwell could ever have conjured up an indigenous-on-steroids story like this and no reputable scholar should ever agree with or accede to the intellectually repressive strictures imposed on Dr. Widdowson.
Please help Frances raise funds to fight her dismissal by clicking here.
What this dismissal of a tenured MRU professor teaches us is that when there is a collision between indigenous perspectives and academic freedom in our increasing post-modern “woke” institutions of higher learning, the former reigns supreme every time.
The capitalization craziness and others like it demand careful examination within the context of the traditional mission of universities to resist politicization in their search for objective and verfiable Enlightement-based truth. This is precisely what Dr. Widdowson does in the outstanding piece of thoughtful writing posted in its entirety on the other side of the paywall.
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