Indigenous knowledge (IK) is resurging, and it is seen by many people as a panacea to much of what industrialization and capitalism has imposed on who humans are, the land we live on, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. All peoples and all cultures have their own ancestral IK. While this is the situation, many people struggle with understanding the essentials of IK asking such questions as, what is IK, where is IK located, and how can they access IK beyond appropriating it from the Indigenous people of Turtle Island?

In this talk I draw on ancient Anishinaabe scroll knowledge and my own models discussing the intelligence of the heart, traditional symbolic literacy traditions, as well as Indigenous ways of knowing and sharing knowledge. Drawing on my experience, learning, and past and ongoing work I will cover such things as where IK is located, how we establish a relationship with IK, and how IK is disseminated. This moderated talk will require deep thinking on the part of listeners because it requires processing, and also because this method honours the listener's own relationship in coming to value IK. This talk will be approximately 60 minutes in length followed by a 30 minute question and answer period.

Biographical Information

Lynn Gehl is an Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe from the Ottawa River Valley, although due to Canada’s need to clear the land of Indigenous Nations she was born and grew-up in Toronto. She studied chemical technology at college where, after 12 years of working in the environmental science field, she returned to school eventually gaining a Ph.D. in Indigenous Studies. Her undergraduate studies were in psychology and cultural anthropology, her Master’s thesis focused on the impact of identity denial where she developed “disenfranchised spirit, a model and a theory”. Her Doctoral dissertation focused on the Ontario Algonquin land claim process where she developed “Debwewin Journey, an ancient model and theory” as her methodology, thus clearly producing Indigenous knowledge. This doctoral work offered an insider analysis of the ongoing genocide inherent in the land claims process. Today she places ancient Anishinaabeg knowledge at the core of what she learns, thinks about, and does. Lynn has a rare form of blindness which creates many judgements and barriers yet at the same time increases her ability to think critically.

While only learning how to read and write beyond the primary school level in her thirties, Lynn was successful in obtaining the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Scholarship. She completed her Ph.D. in 2010 and has since focused on knowledge production, both in academic and community based venues. She has 4 books published, many academic journal publications, and well over 100 community publications in such places as Anishinabek News, Muskrat Magazine, rabble, Canadian Dimension, Huffington Post, Policy Options, and most recently Canada’s History Magazine. She blogs and has several video productions, and has participated in over 20 television and radio interviews, most recently with CBC’s The Current.While taking this journey deeper into Indigenous knowledge, Lynn also took on a section 15 Charter challenge regarding a form of sex discrimination, best known as unknown and unstated paternity in the Indian Act, that was newly created in 1985 at a time when Canada claimed to be amending the Act to bring it in line with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It took Lynn more than 30 years to move through the oral family research process, the archival research process, and a 16 year litigation process where in April 2017 Ontario’s highest court, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, determined Indian and Northern Affairs Canada was unreasonable in its sex discrimination. In this way Lynn was successful in defeating INAC’s unstated paternity policy and gained status registration where today she is now a member of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation and a citizen of the Anishinabek Nation. However Canada’s court then imposed another form of sex discrimination on Lynn, granting her the lesser form of Indian status, 6(2) versus 6(1)a. In this way Lynn continued to face sex discrimination in the Indian Act.

Lynn is the creator of the slogan known as “6(1)a All the Way!” that many people and Senate members rallied around in their 2017 effort to remove the long standing sex discrimination in the Indian Act.

Some of Lynn’s favourite statements are:

Water is so smart, it knows what to do.

It is hard to be human, just keep trying.

Tell me your IK not your IQ.

Hegemony of the heart runs deeper.

Believing in the sacred is far more rational and sustainable than the destruction brought on by the current economic paradigm.

​It is completely unacceptable for Canada to rely on sex discrimination to eliminate the racist Indian Act, and completely unacceptable for Canada to rely on cultural genocide inherent in the land claims and self-government process to eliminate Indigenous rights.

Committed to Indigenous knowledge production, Lynn has a personal website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel. You can also find her work through Google.​

Veldon Coburn is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa's Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies. He completed a PhD at Queen’s University’s in political studies, studying Indigenous politics and policy. Prior to arriving at Carleton, Veldon taught Indigenous issues at Carleton University and McGill University. Veldon is Anishinaabe from Pikwàkanagàn.