Dr. Dan Longboat – Roronhiakewen (He Clears the Sky)
Dan is a Turtle Clan member of the Mohawk Nation and a citizen of the Rotinonshón:ni (Haudenosaunee - People of the Longhouse), originally from Ohsweken - the Six Nations community on the Grand River. Dan is an Associate Professor in the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Studies at Trent University, founding Director of the Indigenous Environmental Science/Studies program (IESS) and acting Director of the newly formed Indigenous Environmental Institute (IEI). He was also the first Director of Studies of Trent’s Indigenous Studies Ph.D. program. Dan designed and developed the IESS program - the first of its kind on Turtle Island. Granting both B.A. and B.Sc. degrees since 2009, the IESS program is an innovative and multidisciplinary undergraduate program that brings together principles of both Indigenous and Western (or neo-European/colonial) Knowledge systems for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. It is based on a collaborative partnership between university departments. Unique IESS courses, along with courses in Indigenous Studies and Environmental Resource Studies and Sciences, form the curriculum.
Dan is celebrated for his Traditional Rotinonshón:ni Knowledge and embeds this into his teaching and in developing the IESS program ongoing. Dan also acts as a cultural advisor and instructor for several programs at the First Nations Technical Institute, Ryerson University and several Ontario universities and colleges. Dan is invited to share across Turtle Island and lectures and teaches on diverse topics including Indigenous environmental Knowledges and philosophy, Indigenous responses to environmental issues, interactive science and Indigenous Knowledge systems, Indigenous education, pedagogy and Indigenous ways of knowing as founded upon Indigenous languages and cultures, the recognition and resurgence of Traditional Indigenous lifeways and practices, human health and the environment, Traditional Indigenous foods and medicines, natural resource development and restoration, community sustainability, international Indigenous networks, the recognition of Treaty and Indigenous rights and understandings of the environmental and human impacts of colonialism. Dan stresses the importance of learning from Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders as the critical foundation for Indigenous identity, vision and life purpose. He creates links between Traditional Indigenous teachings and science and promotes using a “Good Mind” as part of our responsibilities in taking the collective actions needed to restore the Earth for the next seven generations.
Dan Longboat and Professor Chris Furgal created the award winning TRent Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge and Science Initiative (TRACKS), in 2011, alongside IESS faculty and with the support of Kawartha World Issues Centre (KWIC). TRACKS consists of two distinct but connected programs: Outreach & Education and Oshkwazin. TRACKS Outreach & Education offers classroom and after-school workshops, outreach programming and summer camp experiences for children with a focus on weaving Indigenous Knowledges with math and science curriculum. Oshkwazin is a new TRACKS program, which works to develop Indigenous Youth Leadership and Advocacy. To learn more about TRACKS please visit, www.tracksprogram.ca.
In 2018, Dan and Chris Furgal opened Indigenous Environmental Institute (IEI), a non-profit dedicated to public education, professional development and training, and community-based research.
Dr. Longboat has a B.A. from Trent University in Native Studies with a special interest in Human Psychology. Dan completed his M.E.S and Ph.D. in Environmental Studies at York University where his dissertation, The Haudenosaunee Archipelago: The Nature and Necessity of Bio-Cultural Restoration and Revitalization won the Faculty of Graduate Studies prize in 2009.
Selected Publications
Evering, B. & Longboat, D.R. (2013). An introduction to Indigenous environmental studies from principles into action. In Kulnieks, A., Longboat, D.R., & Young, K. (Eds.). (2013). Contemporary studies in environmental and Indigenous pedagogies: A curricula of stories and place. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Kulnieks, A., Longboat, D.R. & Young, K. (2016). Engaging eco-hermeneutical methods: Integrating Indigenous and environmental curricula through an eco-justice-arts-informed pedagogy. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples. 12 (1), 43-56.
Kulnieks, A., Longboat, D.R. & Young, K. (2017). Tramping the mobius: A curriculum of oral and literary tradition as a primer for rural education. Space and Culture. 21 (1), 60-71.
Longboat, D.R. (2014). A Haudenosaunee reflection on "seed: the power of life.” In Global Peace Initiative of Women. (Ed.). The sacred seed: A collection of essays. The Golden Sufi Center.
Sheridan, J. & Longboat, D.R. (2006). The Haudenosaunee imagination and the ecology of the sacred. Space and Culture, 9 (4), 365 – 381.
Sheridan, J. & Longboat, D.R. (2014). Walking back into creation: Environmental apartheid and the eternal – initiating an indigenous mind claim. Space and Culture, 17 (3), 308-324.
Selected Videos
2000 - At the Wood's Edge - Producer, Director: Dan Longboat Traditional Greetings Ceremony documentary
2017 - Indigenous Studies/Dan Longboat (3.29) This features Dan and has information on IESS courses.
2017 - Dan Longboat: A Way of Life: Indigenous Knowledge to Sustain the World (1.22.04) Dan shares teachings at Dalhousie University’s College of Sustainability in Halifax, NS with an introduction by Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall.
2016 - Sustainability and Indigenous Understandings - Trent Talks (16.13) Dan expounds on Indigenous frameworks for making daily changes in the face of the current environmental issues we face.
2015 - Trent University: Centre for Teaching and Learning - Dan Longboat (4.52) Dan shares understandings of Indigenous Knowledge and pedagogies, Traditional teachings and the benefits of bringing Indigenous Knowledge systems into the academy.
