In 2021, Dr. Marie Battiste joined Cape Breton University as Special Advisor to the Vice President Academic and to Unama’ki College on decolonizing the academy. She is a Mi’kmaw educator of the Potlotek First Nation in Cape Breton, Professor Emerita at the University of Saskatchewan, a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow, and an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada. Her interests in "decolonizing education, protecting Indigenous knowledge, cognitive justice through balancing diverse knowledge systems and languages" have led to graduate degrees from Harvard and Stanford Universities, as well as four honorary degrees from the University of Ottawa, University of Maine, St. Mary’s University and Thompson Rivers University in B.C.  She partnered with UBC historian Jean Barman to co-edit First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds (1994) and later edited Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (1999) and co-wrote Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge (2000) with her husband James Youngblood Henderson, a Harvard-educated law professor who was born to the Bear Clan of the Chickasaw Nation and Cheyenne Tribe in Oklahoma in 1944.

Marie Battiste

Dr. Marie Battiste received an Hononary Doctorate from Thompson Rivers University in 2013.

Professional degrees

B.S., Elementary and Junior High Education, University of Maine at Farmington, 1971; Ed.M., Administration and Social Policy, Harvard University, 1974; Ed.D., Curriculum and Teacher Education, Stanford University, 1984; Doctoral Dissertation: An Historical Investigation of the Social and Cultural Consequences of Micmac Literacy. Stanford University, Stanford, CA; Professional Teaching License Level TC8, Nova Scotia Department of Education, 1991; D.H.L. (H.C.), Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, University of Maine, Farmington, Maine, 1997; LL.D., Honorary Doctorate, St. Mary's University, 1987

AWARDS:

First Nations Publishing Award, Saskatchewan Book Award, 2000 (with J. Youngblood Henderson) for Protecting Indigenous Knowledge

Eagle Feather, Mi'kmaq Treaty Day, Halifax, N.S., October 1, 1995. Given by the Mi'kmaq Grand Council, Mawio'mi

White Eagle Feather, Eskasoni School Pow Wow, Eskasoni, Nova Scotia, May 21, 1993

125th Year Queen's Award for Service to the Community, 1992

Nova Scotia Social Studies Curriculum Development Award, SSTA, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1992

Alumni Achievement Award, University of Maine, Farmington, Maine, 1985

Woman of the Year, Professional and Business Women's Society, Sydney, Nova Scotia, 1985

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision

BOOKS:

Battiste, Marie & Jean Barman. First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds (UBC Press, 1994).

Battiste, Marie. Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (UBC Press, 1999).

Battiste, Marie & James (Sa'k'ej) Youngblood Henderson. Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge (Saskatoon: Purich Press, 2000).

[BCBW 2005] ILMBC2