Contributor Profiles

Content Writers

Elder Blu (Laureen Blu Waters)

I am Elder Blu Waters, and my spirit name is Earth Song. I have mixed Indigenous ancestry with family from the Eskasoni Mi’kmaq First Nation on Cape Breton Island, the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, and the Red River Métis in Manitoba. I am from the Wolf Clan, and I am a Two-Spirit, neither man nor woman, gender diverse person. I am the Elder on campus at Seneca College and I work out of the First Peoples office located in Odeyto: a space where we bring cultural knowledge to students and provide a place for them to connect, reconnect, or stay connected with their Indigenous ways of being as they navigate through the colonial post-secondary school system. I conduct traditional ceremonies and provide traditional counseling and traditional knowledge to both students and employees.

In working with administration, faculty, and staff, it is important to provide them with Indigenous understandings, ways of being and knowledge. They can then in turn incorporate those teachings into their work with all students (not just Indigenous students) so that we can all understand whose land we occupy and the critical importance of passing on the information and ideas that have sustained Indigenous people since the beginning of time.

Randy Pitawanakwat

My name is Randy Pitawanakwat, and I am Anishinaabe from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory and Atikameksheng Anishnawbek. I am a full-time faculty at Seneca College with the role of helping faculty to bring more Indigenous content into their courses, and to create ways to decolonize their pedagogical approaches. I work out of Odeyto, the First Peoples office. Prior to my work at Seneca, I worked with the Indigenous community in the Toronto area for over a decade as a social worker. Much of my knowledge comes from a collection of understandings from oral tradition and experiences throughout my life in Wiikwemkoong and Atikameksheng Anishnawbek.

Darcey Dachyshyn

I am Darcey Dachyshyn, and I am a descendent of colonists of Ukrainian ancestry whose great grandparents were sent to Western Canada to take land from people who are First Nations, Métis, and Inuit and turn it in to farmland. My grandfather farmed alongside a Métis road allowance community and my parents enjoyed much wealth gained from the resource extraction of the oil industry. I am fully a product of colonization and acknowledge that I benefit greatly from this.

I joined Seneca College as a full-time faculty just as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada brought forth the 94 Calls to Action. I used my privilege as a full-time faculty to insist that students from the programs in which I teach are provided with knowledge of the colonial history of Canada and the ongoing impact this has had and continues to have on people who are First Nations, Métis, Inuit. Working in collaboration with the First Peoples staff at Seneca College to design curriculum and pedagogy for students led to the conclusion that we needed to provide faculty, staff, and administrators with the knowledge, skills, and insights to deliver Indigenous content in a good way. This led to the creation of Skoden.

Development Team

Instructional Design

Alex Venis, Instructional Designer, The Teaching & Learning Centre, Seneca College

Gina Catenazzo, Instructional Designer, The Teaching & Learning Centre, Seneca College

Naomi Go, Project Manager, The Teaching & Learning Centre, Seneca College

Art

Chris and Greg Mitchell (Born in the North), Illustrators

• All artwork is illustrated and created by Chris and Greg (Born in the North), unless otherwise stated.

Evan Redsky, Art Direction and Music

Sage Petahtegoose, Videographer

Editors

Joey-Lynn Wabie, Copy Editor

Emma Greenfield, Proofreader

Other

With support from, First Peoples@Seneca, Seneca’s Teaching & Learning Centre, and Seneca Libraries Copyright Team.

Amy Lin, Director of Seneca’s Teaching and Learning Centre

Mark Solomon, Dean of Students & Indigenous Education