The next gathering of the Learning from and with Indigenous Community Members Book Club will take place online during National Indigenous History Month on Tuesday, June 14 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Presenting at the second session will be guest speakers and York University grads Marianne and Georgie Groat. They will discuss the award-winning book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Potawatomi scholar Robin Wall Kimmerer.
This meeting of the book club will take place online over Zoom. The book club offers a space where non-Indigenous and Indigenous people can come together to learn through conversations amongst Indigenous guest speakers in relation to Indigenous literature and topics that are meaningful to them, their nations and communities. It is an invitation to get to know Indigenous community members at York University and in neighbouring communities, and cultivate learning about the diverse histories, ways of knowing, ways of being, lived experiences, identities and visions for the future of Indigenous Peoples.
Marianne and Georgie Groat are settler/Haudenosaunee sisters from St. Catharines, Ontario. Their roots are English and Welsh on their mother’s side and Tuscarora and Mohawk on their father’s side, with many family members coming from the Tuscarora Nation in Lewiston, N.Y. Both hold a master’s degree in Indigenous education from York University.
Marianne has been an educator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in various roles since 2001. She worked as an instructional leader at the Urban Indigenous Education Centre (TDSB) for three years before being seconded to York University in the Fall of 2019. She continues to work in the Faculty of Education at York University. She is passionate about supporting the next generation of teachers as they seek to bring Indigenous content and strategies into their regular daily practice.
Georgie holds the role of student achievement leader and is the lead for Indigenous education (principal K-12) at the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN). Her teaching background is in special education. She spent 15 years as a teacher in a day treatment program before moving into the position of consultant for Indigenous education (K-12) at the DSBN. Following this, she was seconded to the Ministry of Education in the Curriculum, Assessment, and Student Success Policy Branch, for three years before becoming a role as a central principal.
This event is open to any member of the York University community register here.