Candace Brunette

Wachay/Bonjour/Hello. 

Waban Geesis nintishnikasim. Petabeck nintochi. Mushkego iskwew entow.  My name is Candace Brunette-Debassige. I am a Mushkego-ininew Cree woman with Cree and French settler lineage. While I am a member of the Mushkegowuk Cree Nation in Treaty 9 Territory and registered with Albany 142, I was born and raised off-reserve in the small town of Cochrane Ontario. My scholarly work and professional practice centers on advancing the liberatory struggles of Indigenous Peoples in higher educational settings. My current research agenda is located in the areas of Indigenous and decolonial approaches to education with a deep commitment toward advancing Indigenous theorizing, Indigenous methodologies in research, and Indigenous pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning.  I am also passionate about advancing Indigenous educational leadership approaches and policy theories and practices that contribute toward transformative decolonial change in various educational settings most notable higher educational settings.

I currently teach in the Masters Indigenous Relations and Bachelor of Indigenous Social Work programs. I am open to working with graduate students in mutual areas of interest. Please reach out to me via email at CBrunette2@laurentian.ca  to explore working together.

Meegwetch/Merci/Thank you,

2021, PhD, Western University (educational policy and leadership)

2010, MA, OISE University of Toronto (Aboriginal education and community development)

2008, BA(Hon), University of Toronto (with a specialist in Aboriginal Studies and Equity Studies)

Jan. 2025-Present, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Relations, Laurentian University

July 2025-Present, Coordinator, Masters Indigenous Relations Program, Laurentian University

July 2024-Dec. 2024, Director and Coordinator of the Master Indigenous Education in Educational Leadership, Western University

July 2021-Dec. 2024, Assistant Professor, Education, Western University

2020-2021, Acting Vice Provost and Associate Vice President, Indigenous Initiatives, Western University

2018-2021, Special Advisor to the Provost Indigenous Initiatives, Western University

2012-2017, Director Indigenous Services, Western University

As an Indigenous scholar, I am deeply committed to working with Indigenous communities in their various forms and advancing Indigenous educational sovereignty in higher education. I situate my research in the fields of Indigenous education and Indigenous studies with deep roots in the interdisciplinary nature of Indigenous knowledges. My research and scholarship is deeply rooted in my own positionality where I often draw upon my own experiences through research and storytelling. A central thread woven across my research is contributing to the liberatory and transformative purpose of Indigenous Peoples presence in mainstream academic learning environments. Overall, my research examines historical and ongoing systemic patterns of colonialism, racism and sexism embedded within Westernized educational contexts in particular Canadian universities, in relation to Indigenous Peoples and our knowledges.

My Research Areas

• Indigenous educational leadership, policy and governance;
• Indigenous women, Indigenous feminisms;
• Indigenous higher educational experiences and transformative changes over time;
• Indigenous storytelling and Indigenous theatre;
• Indigenous teaching, learning, pedagogies and embodied learning;
• Methodologies: Indigenous, decolonizing and narrative approaches.

2025, National Prize for first time book author from the Federation of Social Sciences and Humanities

2024, D2L Innovation Award Teaching and Learning, STLHE

2024, VP Award for Excellence in Collaborative Teaching, UWO

2022, Emerging Scholar of the Year, International Leadership Association, 2022

2021, George L. Geis Doctoral Research Award, Canadian Association for Studies in Higher Education

2021, Peace and Reconciliation Award, Association of Commonwealth Universities

2021, Inclusive Education Award, Faculty of Education, UWO

2019, Graduate Excellence in Teaching Award, Faculty of Education, UWO

2019, Peace Award in Humility for Truth & Reconciliation, Atlohsa Family Services

2018, Great Ideas for Teaching (GIFT), UWO

2010, Award of Distinction, TVDSB

Books

Brunette-Debassige, C. (2023). Tricky Ground: Indigenous Women Administrators’ Experiences in Canadian Universities. Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina Press.

Book Chapters

Brunette-Debassige, C. (2024). All our relations: Indigenous women’s holistically embodied and relational leadership in Canadian universities. In. Women Embodied Leaders: Peacebuilding, Protest, and Professions, (Eds.) Thompson, R. & Topuzova, L Emerald Publishers.

Brunette-Debassige, C., & Viczko, M. (2022). Critical perspectives for educational leadership and policy in higher education. Palgrave Handbook on Critical Policy and Leadership.

Brunette, C. (2018). From Subjugation to Embodied Self-in-Relation: An Indigenous Pedagogy for Decolonization. In Sheila Batacharya, & Renita Wong, (Eds.), Sharing breath: Embodied learning and decolonization. (pp. 199-288) Edmonton, Alberta: Athabasca University Press.

Restoule, J.P., Wolfson, E., Brunette, C., Smillie, C., Mashford-Pringle, A., Chacaby, M., & Russel, G. (2014). Spirituality as a Support for Aboriginal Adult Learners in Post-secondary Education Institutions in Ontario. In N. Wane, A. F. Adyanga, & A.A. Ilmi (Eds.), Spiritual Discourse in the Academy: A Globalized Indigenous Perspective, (pp. 55-62) New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Book Reviews

Brunette-Debassige, C. (2021). [Review of the book Decolonizing and Indigenizing Education in Canada, by S. Cote-Meek and T. Moeke-Pickering] Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy.

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Horn-Miller, K., Brunette-Debassige, C., & Chitty, S. (in press). Sharing Indigenous knowledges in university teaching: The need for conciliable space. Canadian Journal for Studies in Teaching and Learning.

Brunette-Debassige, C., Chitty, S.M., & Graeme, C. (in press). Gifting Indigenous Knowledge in University Teaching and Learning. New Directions for Teaching and Learning Journal.

Brunette-Debassige, C. (2023). Indigenous Refusals in Educational Leadership Practices in Canadian Universities. AlterNative Journal. 19(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231167876

Brunette-Debassige, C., Wakeham, P., Smithers-Graeme, C., Haque, A., & Chitty, S.M. (2022). Mapping approaches to decolonizing and indigenizing the curriculum at Canadian universities: Critical Reflections on current practices, challenges and possibilities. International Indigenous Policy Journal. Spring issue.

Brunette-Debassige, C., & Wakeham, P. (2021). Reimagining the Four Rs of Indigenous education for literary studies: Learning from and with Indigenous stories in the classroom. Studies in American Indian Literature (SAIL) 32(3) p.13-40.

Peach, L., Richmond, C., & Brunette-Debassige, C. (2020). “You can't just take a piece of land from the university and build a garden on it": Exploring Indigenizing space and place in a settler Canadian university context. Geoforum. Fall issue. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718520301524

Debassige, B. & Brunette-Debassige, C. (2018). Indigenizing work as “willful work”: Toward Indigenous transgressive leadership in Canadian universities. Critical and Pedagogy Inquiry Journal Special Issue 10(2).

Hammond, R., Sadler, K., Johnson, M., Brunette, C., Gula, L., Chartrand, D., & Tithecott, G., (2017). Indigenous student matriculation into medical school: Policy and progress. International Indigenous Policy Journal. 8(1). Retrieved from: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/iipj/article/view/7507

Crooks, C. V., Snowshoe, A., Chiodo, D., & Brunette, C. (2013). Navigating between rigor and community-based research partnerships: Building the evaluation of the Uniting Our Nations Health Promotion Program for FNMI youth. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health 32(2), 13-2

Restoule, J., Mashford-Pringle, A., Chacaby, M., Smillie, C, Brunette, C., Russel, G., (2013). Supporting Successful Transitions to Postsecondary for Indigenous students: Lessons from an Institutional Ethnography in Ontario, Canada. The International Indigenous Policy Journal, 4 (4). Retrieved from: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol4/iss4/4